Assemblee nationale: Quebec.

• Position: Legislative Reports

On February 18, 2005, the Premier of Quebec announced an important Cabinet shuffle in which new departments were established (Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade, Tourism, Government Services--including a sector responsible for Online Government) and other responsibilities were redistributed (Sustainable Development, the Environment and Parks, Education, Recreation and Sports, Families, Seniors and the Status of Women, Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs, Francophones within Canada, the Agreement on Internal Trade, the Reform of Democratic Institutions and Access to Information). On this occasion, five Members were given ministerial duties while three Ministers resumed their responsibilities as Private Members; the Council of Ministers thus was raised from 25 to 27 members. The composition of the Cabinet is available on the Assembly web site at the following address: http://www.assnat.qc.ca/eng/Me mbres/titulaires2.html

Rulings and Directives from the Chair

On March 8, 2005, the proceedings of the 1st Session of the 37th Legislature resumed in Quebec. On March 17, the Government broke with tradition by tabling appropriations necessary for the administration of the Government from April 1, 2005 to June 30, 2005 rather than tabling the appropriations for the entire fiscal year.

In his ruling on the Government's right to proceed in this manner, President Michel Bissonnet stated that in our parliamentary system, the Government and the Parliament each have a role to play in the budgetary process. Initially, the Government has complete latitude in the preliminary phase of this process. It is therefore up to the Government to determine the amount of the estimates it will submit to the Assembly and when it will do so. Once the estimates have been submitted to the Assembly, the latter's role is to examine them and to decide whether or not it will grant them in an appropriation bill. The role of the Chair is to make sure that the role of the Assembly in budgetary matters is maintained. He also indicated that it is not for the Chair to rule on the document tabled nor to evaluate it.

The tabling of this document gave rise to the convening of an extraordinary sitting, which was held on March 21, 2005. This urgent meeting of the Assembly enabled the consideration and adoption in Committee of the Whole of the said estimates, the introduction and passage of the consequent appropriation bill, and the completion of the consideration and passage of Bill 71, An Act to amend the Forest Act and other legislative provisions applicable to forest management activities, which was required to come into effect before April 1, 2005. This was the second extraordinary sitting of the 37th Legislature.

Parliamentary Simulations

Close to 140 participants hailing from 25 Quebec colleges took part in a Student Forum parliamentary...