Routine Proceedings

Introduction

In the procedural reforms of 1968 several categories of business were grouped together under Routine Proceedings. This was done principally as a matter of convenience and better organization; the rules or practices pertaining to each category of business were not fundamentally altered. In 1969 there were five headings listed under Routine Proceedings. These were: Presenting Reports from Standing and Special Committees, Motions, Introduction of Bills, First Reading of Senate Public Bills and Government Notices of Motions. The practice of tabling documents was clarified in the rule changes of 1968, but did not become a separate heading under Routine Proceedings until 1975, the year when Statements by Ministers was separated from Motions and treated as a separate heading of ordinary business or routine proceedings.

a) Presenting Reports from Standing and Special Committees

When a committee is ready to present a report a member of the committee, usually the chairman, rises in the House at this point. The acceptability of any report may be challenged when a motion is proposed to concur in it, if it appears for any reason to be out of order.

b) Tabling of Documents

Following the 1968 reforms, a Minister no longer needed to request leave to table a document. Moreover, the document could be tabled by a Parliamentary Secretary. Such documents are of the type that normally fall within the administrative responsibility of the Government. Other material, including departmental documents, is tabled if it is quoted in debate. (A mere reference to a document is not sufficient.) Even if the document is a piece of private correspondence whose author does not wish to see it tabled, it must be laid before the House.

c) Petitions

During the tenure of Speaker Lamoureux, the House did not receive many petitions. Nonetheless, several that were received were ruled out of order on the grounds that they concerned subjects beyond the jurisdiction of Parliament. In another case, a petition was referred to a committee by unanimous consent.

d) Introduction of Bills

A legislative measure may be brought before the House by the Member seeking leave to introduce it, 48 hours after notice has been given. Leave to introduce is usually a pro forma proceeding: it is not debatable, though it can result in a vote. This is true as well for the motion for first reading and printing, which follows immediately after leave to introduce a bill has been granted.

The rules and practice of the House require that a bill be in perfect form when it is presented. If a bill fails in any particular respect, it is competent for the Speaker, or any Member on a point of order, to challenge its acceptability. The lack of a Royal Recommendation or the infringement of a Crown prerogative are two failings, for example, which might prompt an objection to a bill at first reading.

An exception to the practice of accepting bills only in perfect form developed in the mid-1960s, when at the beginning of a session large numbers of private Members' bills were introduced at the same time. By unanimous consent, the Speaker allowed them to be introduced and read a first time before determining their acceptability, on the understanding that after examination they could be ruled out of order prior to second reading. This practice lapsed after December 1982 when a balloting system using Members' names only was introduced to determine priority in the consideration of private Members' business.

e) First Reading of Senate Public Bills

Normally public bills received from the Senate are given first reading without any difficulty. The Speaker or any Member may challenge the receivability of any public bill from the Senate if it contains an appropriation. The House of Commons has always jealously maintained its right to originate all money bills and has ordered any Senate bill infringing the House's privilege to be removed from the Order Paper, thus refusing to consider it at all.

f) Motions

Motions, the final category of Routine Proceedings, is in some ways a miscellany, because it comprises a variety of items related to House business. Concurrence in committee reports and motions for the adjournment of the House proposed by the Government are two of the items which are moved under Motions. The rules of debate apply to both items, and the Speaker has ruled out of order debate or amendments not deemed relevant to the subject-matter of motions for concurrence or adjournment. Until 1975, statements by Ministers were also heard under Motions. By the terms of the Standing Order adopted in 1968, spokesmen for the opposition parties were entitled to make brief replies to any statement of a Minister. However, there was no obligation for the Government to use the opportunity to make announcements or statements on policy; this was entirely at the Government's discretion. Another item under Motions was the oral notice and debate on time allocation orders. Speaker Lamoureux had occasion to rule several times that 24-hour oral notice was sufficient and that there was no requirement for the 48-hour written notice.