House of Commons.

• Author: Gerin-Lajoie, Catherine

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When the House of Commons reconvened after the Christmas adjournment, election fever rose, as repeated tests of confidence in the Government punctuated the proceedings. The Government was not defeated on any of these confidence motions as, in many cases, most Members of the Official Opposition did not vote.

A Liberal amendment to the budget, which was tabled on February 28, 2008, by the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, was negatived on March 3, 2008. The main motion in support of the budget was agreed to the following day.

Another confidence question arose from a government motion to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan. The Liberal Party made public a proposed amendment to the motion, which spelled out their conditions for supporting the mission's extension. On February 21, 2008, notice was given of a second government motion on Afghanistan, similar in content but incorporating some of the demands of the Official Opposition. The vote on the latter motion was held on March 13, 2008, and the motion was adopted with the support of the Official Opposition.

A further test of confidence took the form of a motion calling upon the Senate to pass Bill C-2, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, by March 1, 2008. The motion was adopted on February 12th. Bill C-2 was passed by the Senate on February 27th and received Royal Assent on February 28th.

On March 10, 2008, an opposition motion introduced by NDP Leader Jack Layton, again tested the House's confidence in the government. The motion, pertaining to climate change, was defeated.

The next day, Mr. Flaherty tabled a notice of Ways and Means motion to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in February. The government declared the motion to be a question of confidence. Liberal MP Dan McTeague then rose on a point of order to ask the Chair to rule inadmissible the inclusion in the motion of provisions affecting Bill C-253, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (deductibility of RESP contributions), which he had sponsored. These provisions effectively stated that Bill C 253 would be nullified even if it passed. Bill C-253 is currently before the Senate.

On March 13, 2008, the Speaker delivered his ruling on the motion's admissibility. He concluded that it was not procedurally flawed and that there were precedents for the House voting on related or even contradictory bills in the same session. He accordingly ruled that the Ways and Means motion could proceed in its current form. The question was put on the motion...