Prince Edward Island.

• Author: Johnston, Marian
• Position: Legislative Reports

On June 7, 2005, the Second Session of the Sixty-second General Assembly was prorogued after 53 sitting days, a comparatively long Session for Prince Edward Island. Records show that only four times in the past two decades has a Session gone beyond the 50-day mark.

During the Session, a total of 56 bills received Royal Assent; 53 motions were tabled; 170 ministerial statements were read; 155 members' statements made; and 15 reports by the various standing and special committees of the Assembly were tabled.

On April 20, 2005, the Standing Committee on Privileges, Rules and Private Bills presented its report to the Members of the Legislative Assembly recommending, among other matters, a change to the Rules of the Legislative Assembly concerning membership of the various standing and special committees of the Legislative Assembly. The proposed amendment was that Rule 4 of the Rules for Standing and Special Committees of the Legislative Assembly be deleted and the following substituted:

4(1) The membership of the committees shall be allocated by the Committee on Committees in generally the same proportion as that of the recognized political parties in the House itself, if such approach is practicable.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), in no case shall the Official Opposition have fewer than two Members on any one committee, unless there are fewer than two members of the Official Opposition.

The report was received and adopted by the Assembly. The new rule provides for a minimum of two members of the Official Opposition, if possible, to sit on the various standing committees and reflects the practice which has been in place since December 2003.

In January 2005, the Commission on PEI's Electoral future was created in response to recommendations made in the Electoral Reform Commission report released in 2003.

Commissioners began meeting in March and unveiled a proposed mixed member proportional model at the end of May. They have suggested a two-ballet system. On the first ballot, the representative of the local district would be determined by the first-past-the-post system, as is done currently. A total of 17 local districts would be contained within the boundaries of the four federal electoral districts. Ten "list" or proportional seats would be...