SMIP Committee Report

ADJOURNMENT PROCEEDINGS

19.   The Committee has also considered changes to the adjournment proceedings of the House. First, we believe that it would facilitate greater dialogue and exchange of views if Members were not required to be at their assigned desks in the chamber during adjournment proceedings. (This will also apply to emergency debates and take-note debates.) Second, the time for questions and answers should be adjusted as follows: a four-minute question time, followed by a four-minute answer, and then a round of one-minute each for rebuttal by each Member.

The Committee recommends that Standing Orders 17 and 38(5) be amended as follows:

17. Every Member desiring to speak is to rise in his or her place, except during proceedings pursuant to Standing Orders 38(5), 52 and 53.1, and address the Speaker.

38. (5) The Member raising the matter may speak for not more than four minutes. A Minister of the Crown, or a Parliamentary Secretary replying on behalf of a Minister, if he or she wishes to do so, may speak for not more than four minutes. Following the speech by the Minister or the Parliamentary Secretary, the Member may reply for a period of not more than one minute and the Minister or the Parliamentary Secretary may respond to the reply for not more than one minute.

DEFERRED VOTES

20.   Increasingly, recorded divisions in the House are deferred by the whips. This has the advantage of grouping a series of votes together, and making votes more predictable. It has been suggested that more deferred votes could be scheduled for 3:00 p.m., or just after Question Period. This would have the added advantage of minimizing the interruption of committee meetings, although it could delay the start of such meetings. Where votes are deferred to just after Question Period, the elapsed time should be added to the end of Government Orders, as is currently done in the case of Statements by Ministers.

The Committee recommends that Standing Orders be amended by the addition of Standing Order 45(7.1) as follows:

45. (7.1) Whenever, pursuant to a standing or special order, a recorded division is deferred to the conclusion of oral questions, a period of time equal to that used for the taking of the deferred division shall be added to the time provided for Government Orders on that day. Private Members' Business, where applicable, and the ordinary time of daily adjournment shall be delayed accordingly, notwithstanding Standing Orders 24, 30 and 38 or any Order made pursuant to Standing Order 27.