Extrinsic Aids to Statutory Interpretation: Committees

• Author: Susan Barker, Erica Anderson
• Pages: 92-111

92

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chapter f ive

Extrinsic Aids to Statutory Interpretation:

Commiees

A. INTRODUCTION

A Parliament or legislature uses various kinds of commiees (a smaer

group of members) to do specic and more detailed work than a large

Parliament can accomplish. Commiees are an integral part of the

legislative process. ey consider, modify, and debate bis, hear pub-

lic input on bis and issues, and do clause-by-clause analysis of a bi.

Commiees also examine departmental spending (estimates), consider

papers tabled in the House, order-in-council appointments, and deal

with other important maers as assigned by legislation or the House.

Commiees are smaer and more exible than the House. Prov-

incial legislative commiees could have seven to eight members and

federal commiees could have as many as een. e commiee mem-

bership is usuay a reection of the party standings in the House with

a similar proportional party standing in the commiees. Customs and

the Parliament’s standing orders dictate how the commiees are made

up in each jurisdiction.

In addition, since they are extensions of the House and aow direct

input from citizens, commiees are a great iustration of democracy at

work. Citizens can submit documents to the commiee in the form of

reports that are caed “briefs” federay and provinciay are sometimes

known as “exhibits” or “witness submissions.” Citizens can also appear

Chapter Five: Extrinsic Aids to Statutory Interpretation: Committees  93

as witnesses before the commiee to answer questions from members

and state their views. Commiees have the power to send for persons

and documents to complete their work. Commiees sometimes travel

and hold meetings throughout a jurisdiction to gather input.

ere are two kinds of commiees in the parliamentary commit-

tee system: permanent commiees and special commiees. Gener-

ay, each jurisdiction has permanent commiees that are assigned,

via standing orders, to consider business related to particular policy

areas or ministries. Federay and in Ontario, these permanent com-

miees are caed standing commiees, but commiee names dier

across the provinces. Special commiees are formed for a specic

purpose by the House or legislature and are dissolved once they com-

plete their report. Federay today these commiees are caed spe-

cial commiees. In Ontario they are caed select commiees and are

formed to examine and report on specic maers only.

B. WHY DO WE RESEARCH COMMITTEES?

Commiee materials are an important type of extrinsic aid that helps

to reveal the intention of Parliament. ey are a rich source of legis-

lative history as it is in commiee that members of Parliament wi

discuss a bi in detail and possibly amend it. In addition, experts pro-

vide the commiee with their opinions on the subject maer of the

proposed legislation. ese opinions and the commiee members’

responses and any reasons for the amendments are a recorded in the

commiee records.

Commiee reports are oen used as evidence of legislative intent.

In Nemeth v Canada, for example, Cromwe J explicitly stated that the

use of both the 1998 Minutes and Proceedings and the Sixteenth Report

of the Standing Commiee on Justice and Human Rights was admis-

sible, given the usual caveats about how much weight this evidence

should be aowed:

46 ese suspension provisions were added to the IRPAas conse-

quential amendments when theEA was enacted in 1999. eir pur-

pose was explained by Departmental officials testifying before