Financial Procedures / Business of Ways and Means

Budget: tabling of budget documents prior to budget presentation

April 4, 2019

Debates, pp. 26695–6

On March 19, 2019, Michael Chong (Wellington—Halton Hills) rose on a point of order to question whether Bill Morneau (Minister of Finance) breached parliamentary convention when he tabled Budget 2019 documents in the House before 4:00 p.m., the time at which the budget presentation was to occur following the closure of North American markets. He also noted that, after tabling the documents, the minister made comments concerning the budget outside the House, while other members were asked to respect the embargo until 4:00 p.m.^[1] Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons) contended that the budget documents had been tabled in accordance with the rules of the House. The Speaker took the matter under advisement.^[2]

Resolution

On April 4, 2019, the Speaker delivered his ruling. He confirmed that the Standing Orders conferred upon ministers the latitude to table documents at any time, and that neither a budget presentation nor a budget lock-up and embargo had any impact on this rule.

Decision of the Chair

The Speaker: I am now prepared to rule on the point of order raised on March 19, 2019, by the honourable member for Wellington—Halton Hills, concerning the tabling of the budget 2019 documents by the Minister of Finance.

In raising the matter, the member for Wellington—Halton Hills explained the long-standing parliamentary convention that the budget is not made public before the Minister of Finance presents it to the House and usually not before North American equity markets close. As his point of order, he questioned whether the minister broke the convention on March 19 when he tabled the budget documents in the House before 4 p.m., making them public while an embargo was still in effect.

In response, the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader contended that the budget 2019 documents had been tabled in accordance with the rules.

With respect to a minister’s latitude to table documents, Standing Order 32(2) states:

A Minister of the Crown, or a Parliamentary Secretary acting on behalf of a Minister, may, in his or her place in the House, state that he or she proposes to lay upon the Table of the House, any report or other paper dealing with a matter coming within the administrative responsibilities of the government, and, thereupon, the same shall be deemed for all purposes to have been laid before the House.

Although the tabling of documents pursuant to this standing order most often takes place during routine proceedings, it is not limited to that time. This is confirmed by the House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, at page 445:

Practices for tabling documents allow a Minister to table a document at any time in a sitting …

Neither a budget presentation nor a budget lock-up has a procedural effect or bearing on this rule.

As members will recall, the business scheduled for March 19 was somewhat unusual in that a deferred recorded division was scheduled to begin only minutes prior to the time the Minister of Finance was set to present his budget. As it happened, the minister tabled the budget documents before 4 p.m., at 3:52 p.m. In doing this the minister seemed to acknowledge that he was not following the convention, but he expressed his confidence that “members will be judicious with their privileges before 4 p.m.”

In conclusion, while there was a departure from usual practice with respect to the tabling of the budget documents, there is no point of order.

I thank all hon. members for their attention.