Rule of Debate / Process of Debate

Motions: moving a motion; Speaker seeking unanimous consent to dispense with reading a motion in its entirety

May 27, 2019

Debates, p. 28029

On May 27, 2019, before proceeding with Private Members’ Business, the Deputy Speaker (Bruce Stanton) made a statement with respect to motion M-231. Given the length of the motion and the time needed to read it in its entirety, the Deputy Speaker sought unanimous consent to refer to the motion by its number alone when proposing it to the House. He reminded members that the full text of motion M-231 could be found on the Order Paper and Notice Paper and that copies of the motion could be obtained from a table officer. Unanimous consent was denied. However, since the sponsor of the motion, Frank Baylis (Pierrefonds—Dollard), was not present to move it, the item was dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence.^[1]

Statement of the Chair

The Deputy Speaker: The House will now proceed to the consideration of Private Members’ Business as listed on today’s Order Paper.

As members know, in order for a motion to be considered to be before the House it must first be found to be in order, then moved and seconded and, finally, the Speaker proposes it to the House.

In proposing it to the House, the Speaker would normally read the motion in its entirety, unless, of course, the House gives its permission to dispense.

In this case, Motion No. 231, standing in the name of the hon. member for Pierrefonds—Dollard, is particularly long. The time it would take to read the motion would exceed the one-hour period allocated to private members’ business and deprive members of the opportunity to debate this issue today.

Rather than reading the motion in its entirety when proposing it to the House, the Chair could simply refer to it by its number, Motion No. 231. The House can then proceed directly to the consideration of the motion so that members are afforded the full time allotted to debate on this item.

For reference purposes, the text of Motion No. 231 can be found on the Order Paper and Notice Paper under private members’ business, and copies of the motion can be obtained from a table officer.

At this time, I would therefore seek the unanimous consent of the House to dispense with the reading of the entirety of the motion. Is that agreed?

Some hon. members: No.

The Deputy Speaker: The hon. member for Pierrefonds—Dollard is not present to move the order as announced on today’s Notice Paper. Accordingly, the motion will be dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the Order Paper.

Accordingly, the House will remain suspended until noon.

(The sitting of the House was suspended at 11:06 a.m.)

Editor’s Note

On June 14, 2019, the House proceeded to the consideration of motion M-231.^[2] The motion was read in its entirety.