Acknowledgements
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Table Research Branch. Created in 1980 by Dr. C.B. Koester, then Clerk of the House, the Branch is mandated to provide information and advice on parliamentary procedure to the Chair, the Table, Members of Parliament and their staff, public servants, academics and the general public. The publication of the second edition of the Annotated Standing Orders of the House of Commons represents another milestone in the Branch’s proud history of producing reliable and comprehensive works on Canadian parliamentary procedure.
The planning of this project began at the Table Research Branch in late 2002 under the direction of Deputy Principal Clerk Christine Trauttmansdorff. The project has received the strong support of Deputy Clerk Audrey O’Brien, Clerk Assistant Marie-Andrée Lajoie and Principal Clerk Janice Hilchie. In April 2005, Beverley Isles took over as Deputy Principal Clerk of the Branch and saw the project to completion. In addition to managing the resources for the project, Audrey O’Brien, Marie-Andrée Lajoie and Beverley Isles also reviewed the draft chapters, as did Clerk Assistant Marc Bosc. Principal Clerks André Gagnon and Michael Lukyniuk provided comments for certain chapters, as did Christine Trauttmansdorff. The feedback and suggestions of all involved in the review process were extremely helpful in strengthening the text and ensuring its accuracy.
The core team of researchers and writers for the second edition was composed of procedural clerks Suzanne Kinsman, Jeffrey LeBlanc, Evelyn Lukyniuk and Marie-Thérèse Messier. They identified the areas where the first edition required updating and conducted the systematic research needed to bring the text in line with current practice. This involved carefully reviewing and analysing primary sources — Journals, Debates, committee reports — from the past 16 years in order to find key precedents, Speakers’ rulings and committee recommendations. In addition to drafting the updated chapters, they also saw the project through its final stages of revision, verification and production. In all of this work, they were greatly assisted by Jennifer Ahde, Carole Bray, Derek Inman, Jean-Patrick Levasseur, Leah Nalley and Katy Treehuba, who helped with such things as research compilations, collection of reference material and proofreading. Procedural clerks Debra Manojlovic-Ford and François Prégent, as well as administrative assistants Sophie Descary and Tina Miller, also contributed to the project during its preliminary stages. Other procedural clerks in the Table Research Branch and throughout Procedural Services were unfailingly generous with their advice and assistance.
The translation of the text was undertaken by the Translation Bureau of the Government of Canada, under the supervision of the Chief of Parliamentary Documents, Francine Nantel. Translators Josée Deschênes and Patricia Galbraith were specifically assigned to the project, with Jacques Dubé providing timely assistance toward the end of the project. They are to be commended for their excellent work, particularly given the complexity of the material and the tight deadlines under which they were working. Pierre Couture of the Table Research Branch revised the text in order to ensure consistency and concordance. The formatting and production of the book was done by the Parliamentary Publications Directorate, under the supervision of Kim Buzzetti, Chief of the Publishing Service and Manager Vina Godier. Martin Bédard and Guy Rochon helped to coordinate the production. The Index was produced by Information Management Officers Christopher Lambert and Gaston Massé, and revised by Senior Information Management Officers Suzanne Proulx and Joanne Sacoutis. Richard Soucy of Printing Services coordinated the final publication.
A work of this nature requires a great deal of dedication, intellectual rigour and professional discipline. All participants in this project are to be congratulated for their commitment to producing a text of such high quality. I am certain that it will be an invaluable resource to all those seeking to understand the workings of the House of Commons.
WILLIAM C. CORBETT
Clerk of the House of Commons.