Government Response to Petitions
Since 1986, the Standing Orders have
provided that the Ministry shall respond within 45 calendar days to every
petition referred to
it. [76]
After
certified petitions are presented to the House, they are deposited with the
Clerk of Petitions. Under the authority of the Clerk of the House, the original
petition is forwarded to the Privy Council
Office, [77]
which
makes arrangements with the appropriate government departments and agencies for
the preparation and collection of replies. Government responses to petitions are
generally tabled in the House during Routine Proceedings, under the rubric
“Tabling of Documents”, but may also be deposited with the
Clerk. [78]
Petitions
receive individual responses. Any Member who has presented a petition is
provided with a copy of the response at the time it is tabled. After being
tabled in the House, government responses to petitions (unlike the petitions
themselves) become sessional
papers. [79]
The tabling of government responses to
petitions is entered in the Journals. If the tabling is done during
Routine Proceedings, the government spokesperson, usually the Parliamentary
Secretary to the Government House Leader, simply informs the House that
responses to a certain number of petitions are being tabled; no reference is
made to specific petitions or the content of the responses, and the intervention
is transcribed in the Debates.
The Standing Orders provide no sanction to
apply in the event the government fails to respond to petitions within the
45-day time frame. Complaints have been raised about breaches of this
rule. [80]
In 1993,
however, the Speaker found a prima facie question of privilege concerning
the failure to table an Order in Council and in his ruling made reference to
earlier complaints that responses to petitions, answers to written questions and
responses to committee reports were not always tabled within the prescribed time
limits. [81]
The matter
of timeliness was referred to the committee dealing with matters of privilege,
which stated in a report to the House that “statutory and procedural time
limits must be complied with … It may be that the time periods set out in the
Standing Orders and certain statutes need to be reviewed … Until this is done,
however, it is essential that the deadlines be
respected.” [82]
While normally all proceedings would be
terminated when Parliament is prorogued, the Speaker has ruled that government
responses to petitions have the same status as orders for return (documents
which the House has ordered to be produced and presented in the
House). [83]
Pursuant
to the rules, such orders are considered to have been readopted at the start of
a new session without a motion to that
effect. [84]
Thus,
government responses to petitions, ordered in a previous session, must be tabled
in a new session following a
prorogation. [85]