Special Debates

Introduction

In response to parliamentary events, emergencies, and issues of national or international importance, the House will, from time to time, put aside its normal proceedings to engage in debate on these matters. These “special debates” include the debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne; the debate on the Standing Orders and procedure of the House and its committees; emergency debates; debates to suspend certain Standing Orders in order to consider urgent matters; and take-note debates. The decisions included in this chapter relate to two of these types of special debates: emergency debates and take-note debates.

Emergency debates are governed by specific provisions of the Standing Orders. Once Routine Business has been concluded, Standing Order 52(1)^[1] gives Members leave to make a motion for the adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter requiring urgent consideration. However, before refusing or granting leave to hold an emergency debate, the Speaker considers a number of factors.

The decisions in this chapter on emergency debates illustrate the wide variety of requests made and how the Speaker responds to them. In one of these decisions, made in February 2012, the Speaker ruled that an emergency debate is not justified when the matter is already being considered by another administrative body.

When determining whether a matter is urgent, the Speaker also takes into account the likelihood that the matter will be discussed in the House by other means within a reasonable time frame. As the Speaker is not obliged to indicate the reasons for refusing or granting a request for an emergency debate, the decisions in this chapter are very short. While the Speaker may provide reasons from time to time, the Chair seeks to limit its explanations in order to avoid adding to the jurisprudence, which could itself become a subject of debate in the House.

Once a request for an emergency debate has been granted, the Speaker has the discretion to decide when the debate will take place. In May 2014, Speaker Scheer granted leave to hold an emergency debate on the abduction of young girls in Nigeria, but he scheduled the debate for the following Monday to give more Members the opportunity to participate.

Take-note debates are the second group of “special debates” addressed in this chapter. Pursuant to Standing Order 53.1,^[2] take-note debates are held in Committee of the Whole. The statement included in this chapter is from October 2011, when the Chair of Committees of the Whole explained the basic principles of a take-note debate and how it proceeds, including the speaking time allocated to Members.