House of Commons.

AuthorMacdonald, Julie-Anne
PositionLegislative Reports

The House adjourned for the summer break on June 18, 2013. The information below covers the period from May 1 to July 31, 2013.

Legislation

Bill C-60, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures was read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Finance for study on May 7. That same day, the Standing Committee on Finance adopted a motion inviting five additional standing committees to study the subject matters of certain provisions of the Bill and to submit their recommendations or suggested amendments regarding the Bill to the Finance Committee. In addition, the Committee invited independent Members to submit amendments to the Bill that they would like the Committee to consider. The motion also specified that any amendments proposed by the other committees or independent Members would be "deemed to be proposed during the clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-60". The Committee considered 55 amendments, including 14 from independent Members and, on May 29, the Bill was reported back to the House without amendment.

The same day, Opposition House Leader Nathan Cullen rose in the House on a point of order regarding the Committee having allowed independent Members to submit amendments during consideration of the Bill. He stated that the Committee had surpassed its authority, since only the House can choose committee members and only committee members are allowed to move motions.

In the days that followed, independent Members Andre Bellavance and Elizabeth May agreed that being allowed to move the amendments at committee stage was not helpful for the independent Members given their limited participation in the proceedings. Ms. May suggested that to disallow amendments at report stage because of how the Bill was studied in committee would be fundamentally unfair and breach her privileges as a Member. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons) rose to argue that the actions taken by the Committee were in order and noted that independent Members had amendments on notice for report stage.

On May 31, the Speaker informed Members that a comprehensive ruling on the matter would be forthcoming, however in the interim, he could not conclude that the Committee had exceeded its mandate and that consideration of the bill could proceed. On June 6, the Speaker delivered his ruling. He stated that he could not determine that the Committee had exceeded its mandate, or that Standing Order 119, which deals with the...

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