Questions Related to Content of Bills / Estimates

Legislative item

Journals pp. 70-1

Debates p. 896

Background

When Mr. Drury (President of the Treasury Board) moved that "Supplementary Estimates (B) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1974 ... be concurred in", Mr. Nielsen (Yukon) rose on a point of order to argue that the vote under Consumer and Corporate Affairs entitled "Food Prices Review Board- program expenditures" was a legislative item. He said that there was "no statute or previous vote in any past Appropriation Act", and that the Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs did not have legislative authority to create such a board under the relevant act, except as a departmental board. In response, Mr. Reid (Kenora-Rainy River) indicated that the Food Prices Review Board had been set up under the Inquiries Act, and that this item in the Estimates provided funds for the Board to operate. The Speaker then ruled.

Issue

Is the vote in question a legislative item?

Decision

No. It is not a legislative item.

Reasons given by the Speaker

"Parliament cannot legislate by Estimates", but this particular vote in the Estimates does not seek to amend an act or "to establish a legislative principle". It is difficult to see how this is anything other than an item of Estimates.

Sources cited

Journals, December 10, 1973, p. 737-8.

References

Debates, March 26, 1974, pp. 894-5.