House of Commons.

• Author: Monnin, Marisa
• Position: Legislative Reports

The First Session of the Forty-Second Parliament continued through the months of April, May and June 2017, with the House adjourning for the summer break on June 21, 2017. The report below covers the months of April, May, June and July 2017.

Financial Procedures

On June 14, 2017, the final supply day in the period ending June 23, 2017, the House considered motions to concur in the Main Estimates and the Supplementary Estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018. The House Leader of the Official Opposition, Candice Bergen (Portage-Lisgar), had advised the Speaker by letter before the consideration of the estimates that she was withdrawing the 242 notices of opposition she had put on notice on June 12, 2017. Accordingly, the House did not consider her notices of opposition. Cathy McLeod (Kamloops--Thompson--Cariboo), Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette) and Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley) had put on notices of opposition to Vote 1, under Privy Council Office--Program expenditures, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada--Program expenditures and Senate--Program expenditures and contributions. The House voted on the motion to concur in Vote 1, which was carried. Following this, as per the usual practice, the House adopted two supply bills for the Main and Supplementary Estimates.

Points of Order and Questions of Privilege

Points of Order

On May 17, 2017, Murray Rankin (Victoria) rose on a point of order concerning the nomination process for the Commissioner of Official Languages. Mr. Rankin argued that, as required by the Official Languages Act, substantive consultation was required before the appointment of the Commissioner, which he claimed, did not occur. Both Mr. Rankin and Ms. Bergen contended that the nomination process should be halted until such time as true consultations had been undertaken. On May 29, 2017, the Speaker delivered his ruling, reminding the House that the role of the Chair is strictly limited to determining procedural admissibility of the motion for the nomination of the Commissioner of Official Languages and that the Speaker cannot adjudicate on the legality of matters. As such, the Speaker indicated that he was satisfied that the procedural requirements were met.

On June 19, 2017, John Nater (Perth-Wellington) rose on a point of order regarding the appointment of the Clerk of the House of Commons. Mr. Nater contended that the Government's motion to appoint the new Clerk of the House of Commons should be ruled out of order since the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs had not yet studied and reported back to the House on the matter. The Speaker ruled immediately, explaining that a report from the committee is not required in order to proceed with the nomination of the Clerk, and as such, he allowed the motion of nomination to proceed.

Questions of Privilege

On April 6, 2017, following the Speaker's prima facie finding on a question of privilege raised by Lisa Raitt (Milton) regarding access to the parliamentary precinct, Ms. Raitt moved a motion to refer the matter to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. During the debate on the motion, Alexandra Mendes (Brossard-Saint-Lambert), moved a motion that the House do now proceed to Orders of the Day, which was later adopted. The adoption of this motion had the effect of having the privilege motion superseded and dropped from the Order Paper. The next day, Mr. Nater raised a question of privilege, in which he asked that the matter of privilege under debate on April 6, 2017, be revived. Mr. Nater alleged that the adoption of a motion to proceed to Orders of the Day when debating a privilege motion prevented the House from pronouncing itself on the merits of the question of privilege raised by Ms. Raitt. On April 11, 2017, the Speaker delivered his ruling...