Chapter 10The Daily Program

Private Members’ Business

Each sitting day, one hour is set aside for Private Members’ Business,³⁶⁰ that is, for the consideration of bills and motions presented and sponsored by Members of the House of Commons who are not Ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries.³⁶¹ This hour commences at 11:00 a.m. on Mondays, 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 1:30 p.m. on Fridays.³⁶²

Cancellation of Private Members’ Business

Consideration of Private Members’ Business may be cancelled or not take place on certain occasions, namely:

on any day the House proceeds to elect a Speaker;³⁶³
on any day designated for the presentation of the budget speech if it is scheduled to take place before Private Members’ Business;³⁶⁴
on any day when an emergency debate takes place before Private Members’ Business;³⁶⁵
on any day when a Minister of the Crown moves a motion on a matter the government considers to be of an urgent nature, and that debate takes place in the time normally provided for Private Members’ Business;³⁶⁶
on the last allotted day of the supply period ending June 23, unless it is a Monday, when Private Members’ Business takes place at the beginning of the sitting;³⁶⁷
on any day when a question of privilege is being considered by the House and that debate continues during the period normally reserved for Private Members’ Business;³⁶⁸ and
on any day prior to the establishment of the order of precedence.³⁶⁹

Because Members must be aware of when particular items are expected to be called for consideration, the Standing Orders require the Speaker to ensure that Members are given at least 24 hours’ notice of which item is to be considered during Private Members’ Business on the next sitting day.³⁷⁰ This notification must be published in the Notice Paper.

A Member whose motion or bill is scheduled for consideration during Private Members’ Business and who is unable to be present that day to move the motion may notify the Speaker in writing 48 hours in advance. The Speaker has the authority to arrange an exchange with another item on the order of precedence with the permission of the Members involved, and Private Members’ Business proceeds as usual.³⁷¹ Should such an exchange be impossible, Private Members’ Business does not take place that day and the House continues with the business previously before it.³⁷² Should this occur on a Monday, the House would then begin consideration of Government Orders at 11:00 a.m. instead of at noon.³⁷³

However, when Private Members’ Business is reached, should a Member not be present to move his or her scheduled item when called and not have given the required notice, then Private Members’ Business is cancelled for that day.³⁷⁴ On Mondays, the sitting is suspended until noon, at which time the House commences with Government Orders.³⁷⁵ On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the House moves on to the Adjournment Proceedings. When this occurs on a Friday, the Speaker adjourns the House.³⁷⁶

Finally, Private Members’ Business may be delayed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays to allow the House to continue with Routine Proceedings until the completion of “Introduction of Government Bills”.³⁷⁷

Delays and Interruptions

Private Members’ Business may be delayed or interrupted for a number of reasons. Should this occur, the debate on the item of business would be extended or rescheduled to another time.³⁷⁸ For example, if consideration of Private Members’ Business is delayed because of a recorded division,³⁷⁹ by the moving of a time allocation motion,³⁸⁰ by a ministerial statement,³⁸¹ by Royal Assent,³⁸² or due to an emergency alarm,³⁸³ then Private Members’ Business is extended by a corresponding amount of time.³⁸⁴ If the delay or interruption extends 30 minutes or more beyond the ordinary ending of Private Members’ Business, the Speaker will postpone consideration of the item of business to a future sitting and the House will move on to the next item on the daily program.³⁸⁵ The rescheduled debate takes place within 10 sitting days, but no more than one adjournment period as provided in the House calendar may intervene in the rescheduling of the debate. The rescheduled business is considered during an additional Private Members’ Hour, which is added to the daily schedule of the House, usually at the ordinary hour of daily adjournment. Twenty-four hours’ notice is given.³⁸⁶

360.: At the beginning of a Parliament, Private Members’ Business does not take place until the order of precedence has been established (Standing Order 91).
361.: Standing Order 87(1)(a)(ii). The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House cannot submit private Members’ business.
362.: Standing Order 30(6). If debate on a private Member’s business item concludes before the end of the time allotted, the remaining time may not be used for other purposes without the unanimous consent of the House. See, for example, Journals, February 10, 2014, p. 527.
363.: Standing Order 2(3).
364.: Standing Order 83(2).
365.: Standing Order 52(14). For further information, see Chapter 15, “Special Debates”.
366.: Standing Order 99(1). For further information, see Chapter 15, “Special Debates”.
367.: Standing Order 99(1).
368.: See, for example, Journals, November 14, 2005, pp. 1259–67; November 4, 2014, pp. 1716–8. A privilege motion, once under debate, has priority over all Orders of the Day including Government Orders and Private Members’ Business. However, the debate does not interfere with the regular holding of Routine Proceedings, Statements by Members, Question Period, Royal Assent, the Adjournment Proceedings, or the taking of a division. For further information on matters of privilege, see Chapter 3, “Privileges and Immunities”.
369.: Standing Order 91.
370.: Standing Order 94(1)(a).
371.: Standing Order 94(2)(a).
372.: Standing Order 94(2)(b). Since the coming into force of this Standing Order, the Speaker has instructed, on such occasions, that the item be dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence. See, for example, Debates, March 26, 1998, p. 5442; March 10, 2005, p. 4292; May 7, 2014, p. 5073. Since 2001, however, the House has limited the number of exchanges that can be requested by sponsors of an item. Pursuant to Standing Order 94(2)(c), Members whose absence cause Private Members’ Business to be suspended are prohibited from requesting an exchange in the future and will see their item dropped from the Order Paper if they are absent a second time (Journals, November 24, 2014, p. 1825, Debates, p. 9681).
373.: Standing Order 99(2). See, for example, Debates, May 8, 1998, p. 6736; February 6, 2004, p. 283; March 28, 2013, p. 15361; April 15, 2013, p. 15377.
374.: Long before this practice was established, there was another provision governing this type of situation in the Standing Orders, and which still exists. Standing Order 94(1)(b) provides that if the Speaker were unable to notify the House at least 24 hours in advance of the item to be considered, then Private Members’ Business would be suspended and the House would continue with the business before it. This provision was included in the Standing Orders for unforeseen and unexpected circumstances and, in practice, it is unlikely to be invoked.
375.: See, for example, Debates, December 5, 2011, p. 3947; October 27, 2014, p. 8783.
376.: See, for example, Debates, October 24, 2014, p. 8781; November 6, 2014, p. 9315.
377.: Standing Order 30(4)(a) and (b).
378.: Standing Order 30(7). See, for example, Debates, December 3, 2013, p. 1739; Order Paper and Notice Paper, December 10, 2013, p. XV. See also Speaker Scheer’s ruling (Debates, March 27, 2013, p. 15312).
379.: See, for example, Journals, May 6, 2015, p. 2493, Debates, pp. 13559–65. This most often happens on Wednesdays, the day that deferred recorded divisions on Private Members’ Business are held and Routine Proceedings are considered in the afternoon, after Oral Questions.
380.: Standing Order 67.1. The time set aside for the 30-minute question and answer period on a time allocation motion is added to the time provided for Government Orders. The hour for Private Members’ Business, where applicable, and the ordinary hour of daily adjournment may be delayed accordingly. See, for example, Debates, May 14, 2015, pp. 13911, 13917, 13973. The exceptions are time allocation motions expressed in hours rather than sitting days and time allocation motions worded so that the day in question is not subject to time allocation. For further information on time allocation motions, see Chapter 14, “The Curtailment of Debate”.
381.: See, for example, Debates, October 23, 2014, pp. 8697, 8747.
382.: See, for example, Debates, March 20, 1997, pp. 9306–7; June 19, 2014, pp. 7190–8.
383.: See, for example, Debates, February 16, 2000, p. 3625.
384.: Prior to February 1994, when Standing Order 30(7) was amended to provide for delays or interruptions in Private Members’ Business for any reason, Private Members’ Business could be extended only with the unanimous consent of the House. See, for example, Debates, October 2, 1991, p. 3190; June 4, 1992, p. 11438.
385.: Standing Order 30(7). See, for example, Debates, March 5, 2008, pp. 3700–1; March 10, 2008, p. 3859; Journals, March 12, 2008, p. 588. See also Debates, June 9, 2010, p. 3628, June 14, 2010, p. 3779; Journals, June 16, 2010, pp. 546–7.
386.: As an example, on Wednesday, October 5, 2005, Private Members’ Business was scheduled to take place from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Because of numerous recorded divisions, the House was not ready to proceed to Private Members’ Business until 7:20 p.m., 50 minutes past the time Private Members’ Business would normally have ended. Pursuant to the Standing Orders, the Speaker was required to reschedule the debate to another sitting (Journals, October 5, 2005, p. 1118, Debates, pp. 8460–71, in particular p. 8471; Journals, October 20, 2005, p. 1183, Debates, p. 8829; Order Paper and Notice Paper, October 5, 2005, p. 36; October 6, 2005, p. 31; October 17, 2005, p. 31). On one occasion, the debate on an item of Private Member’s Business was postponed to a Monday sitting. The item of Private Member’s Business scheduled for that day was debated from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., while the postponed item was debated after Government Orders (Debates, March 24, 2015, p. 12286; Order Paper and Notice Paper, April 20, 2015, p. 63; Journals, pp. 2359, 2375–6). On another occasion, the House adopted an order to consider two private Members’ business items in one Friday sitting (Journals, April 22, 2015, p. 2385; April 24, 2015, p. 2412). For further information on Private Members’ Business, see Chapter 21, “Private Members’ Business”.

For questions about parliamentary procedure, contact the Table Research Branch

613-996-3611

trbdrb@parl.gc.ca