The Daily Program / Routine Proceedings

Questions on the Order Paper: additional information provided along with the answer; indication of approximate cost of providing replies; prohibition against argument, opinion, and unnecessary facts applies to both questions and answers

October 2, 1991

Debates, p. 3147

On September 17, 1991, Albert Cooper (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons) provided answers to several questions on the Order Paper. Additional information was also supplied as to the time taken to prepare each answer and the approximate cost of providing the reply.^[1]

The next day, Peter Milliken (Kingston and the Islands) rose on a point of order concerning this matter. He argued that the government was including extraneous details in the responses which bore no relation to the question and which could suggest that members were wasting public money. He called upon the Speaker to order an end to this practice. Other members also intervened on the matter.^[2] The Speaker considered the matter and made his ruling on October 2, 1991. The ruling is reproduced in extenso below.

Decision of the Chair

The Speaker: On Wednesday, September 18, the honourable member for Kingston and the Islands rose on a point of order concerning the answers provided by the government to written questions placed on the Order Paper, pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order 39, and printed in Debates of Tuesday, September 17.

He brought to the attention of the House the inclusion in those answers of statements of the amount of time required to prepare each answer and the approximate cost of providing the reply. In his presentation the honourable member noted that such material was extraneous to the question and argued that it should not be included in the answer.

At the time, very helpful interventions were made by the government House leader and his parliamentary secretary, as well as the honourable members for South West Nova and for Thunder Bay—Atikokan.

Standing Order 39 states the procedure for dealing with questions on the Order Paper. The portion of the Standing Order relevant to the present situation reads as follows and I quote:

…in putting any such question or in replying to the same no argument or opinion is to be offered, nor any facts stated, except so far as may be necessary to explain the same; and in answering any such question the matter to which the same refers shall not be debated.

In reviewing the provisions of the Standing Order as well as its history, it is interesting to note that generally the problems with this rule which have arisen in the past have been with the wording and nature of questions, rather than with answers.

This is why the Clerk of the House is charged with the task of examining notices of questions to ensure that they meet the requirements of Standing Order 39(1) before they are placed on the Notice Paper. They are scrutinized as to the correctness of their form and content.

As noted in the Annotated Standing Orders on page 126, the principles guiding the Clerk are that no argument or opinion is to be offered nor any irrelevant fact stated in the question. Thus is ensured the primary purpose of such questions as stated in the Standing Orders, that is, the seeking of information from the ministry relating to public affairs.

The requirements that questions presented offer no argument or opinion, nor any other facts except as may be necessary, were extended to the replies to questions in 1906. This was done expressly to ensure that the process remained an exchange of information rather than becoming an opportunity for debate.

Therefore, in the present circumstances, since the type of information referred to by the honourable member for Kingston and the Islands is not germane to the information requested, I would ask the honourable government House leader and his parliamentary secretary to review carefully the replies provided by the ministry to be published in the Debates to ensure that, in future, all such answers conform to the provisions of Standing Order 39.

F0334-e

34-3

1991-10-02