Privilege / Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous; committees; attendance of witnesses

Debates p. 1849

Background

When the House met, Mr. Nystrom (Yorkton-Melville) rose on a question of privilege to complain that the Standing Committee on Regional Development was being hampered in its study of estimates because both the Minister of Regional Economic Expansion and his deputy "have declared themselves unavailable as witnesses at a reasonably early time". Mr. Nystrom explained that the matter was "extremely urgent as under Standing Orders the standing committee is required to consider and report these estimates back to the House not later than May 31". He therefore proposed to move that the Standing Committee on Privileges and Elections inquire into the matter and report back to the House within five days. The Speaker ruled immediately.

Issue

Is the issue of calling Ministers to appear before committees, or calling departmental officials as witnesses, one of privilege?

Decision

No, the problem cannot be considered as privilege.

Reasons given by the Speaker

The Member may have a grievance in which case it is a question of substance and it can only be put before the House by way of a substantive motion. Moreover, the problem should be resolved by the committee and not by the House. "... difficulties in discussions and debates in a committee should be settled by a committee itself, and ... if there are difficulties which are to be considered by the House, this should be done at the time the report of the committee is before the House." There is also a question of propriety and practicality in having proceedings of one committee investigated by another.

Sources cited

Standing Orders 17 and 65(11).

Debates, March 15, 1971, p. 4239.

References

Debates, May 3, 1972, pp. 1849-50.