House of Commons.

• Author: Macdonald, Julie-Anne
• Position: Legislative Reports - Report

The House of Commons adjourned for the winter break on December 12, 2012, and resumed sitting on January 28, 2013. The information below covers the period from January 28 to April 30, 2013.

On January 31, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Rob Nicholson introduced Bill C-53, An Act to assent to alterations in the law touching the Succession to the Throne. Mr. Nicholson informed the House that His Excellency the Governor General had given in Her Majesty's name the Royal Consent to the Bill.

Derived from British practice and among the unwritten rules and customs of the House of Commons of Canada, Royal Consent is required for any legislation that affects the prerogatives, hereditary revenues, property or interests of the Crown. It does not signify approval of the substance of the measure, but only that the Crown agrees to remove an obstacle to the progress of the bill so that the latter may be considered by both Houses and ultimately submitted for Royal Assent.

On February 4, the Leader of the Government, Peter Van Loan sought and obtained unanimous consent to move a motion to deem Bill C-53 adopted at all stages in the House and passed. The motion was agreed to and the Bill was sent to the Senate. On March 13, the Bill received Royal Assent.

On March 19, at the request of the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, an Order of the Day was designated for the consideration of a Ways and Means motion for a Budget presentation. On March 21, Mr. Flaherty moved "[t]hat this House approve in general the budgetary policy of the government" and presented the Budget speech. Following the usual four days of debate, the motion was agreed to on March 27.

Procedure, Points of Order, and Questions of Privilege

On January 29, extending a practice in effect since 2010, the House adopted the following motion:

That, notwithstanding the provisions of any Standing Order, for the remainder of the 41st Parliament, when a recorded division is to be held on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, except recorded divisions deferred to the conclusion of oral questions, the bells to call in the Members shall be sounded for not more than thirty minutes. The same day Speaker Andrew Scheer ruled on a point of order raised on November 29, 2012 by Sean Casey regarding the relevance of the government's response to a written question he had submitted. In his ruling, the Speaker reminded the House of the well-established practice that Speakers do not judge the quality of government responses to questions, whether written or oral, and stated that the written question process is intended to be free of argument and debate. In order to protect the integrity of the process, he encouraged those submitting questions and those preparing answers to bear that principle in mind.

On February 7, the Speaker ruled on the question of privilege raised by Mauril Belanger regarding the difficulty he had encountered in obtaining information from Public Works and Government Services Canada. Mr. Belanger charged that government procedures requiring elected officials to seek public information through the Minister's office, while ordinary citizens could obtain the very same information directly...