Privilege / Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Debates p. 4549

Background

On April 10, Mr. Broadbent (Oshawa—Whitby) raised a question of privilege regarding a leak of budget information. After allowing a brief discussion, the Speaker intervened to defer the matter. "It awaits the presentation of the budget this evening, and will be subject to further discussion at this time tomorrow." The following day, the Speaker noted that the action taken in the British precedents was not in the form of a question of privilege. Furthermore, the leak involved information on provincial tax cuts, rather than federal tax cuts, and also the Minister of Finance informed the House that he had not made a final decision on the reduction of the sales tax until after the supposed leaks had appeared in the news media.

Issue

Does the leaking of budget information constitute a question of privilege?

Decision

There is no question of privilege.

Reasons given by the Speaker

The Minister of Finance denied the possibility of a leak of budget information respecting the sales tax and, of course, the House must accept his word.

The Chair has serious doubts as to whether the convention of budgetary secrecy falls within the area of privilege at all.

Finally, the terms of the motion proposed by Mr. Broadbent are too general in nature. General motions, without specific accusations, have been rejected by the Chair.

Authorities cited

U.K., Parliament, House of Commons, Debates 1936 (specific citation not given); Debates 1947 (specific citation not given).

References

Debates, April 10, 1978, pp. 4284-5; April 11, 1978, pp. 4377-83.