Quebec.

• Author: Gagnon, Jacques
• Position: ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE

The National Assembly resumed on February 9, 2010, after the holiday recess. Early in the new sessional period, electronic petitions, made possible by the parliamentary reform adopted in 2009, were tabled in the House for the first time.

An emergency debate on the Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America on Government Procurement was held on February 16 after the Chair granted leave for the debate. As provided in the Standing Orders, the limited two-hour debate was not subject to a vote in the Assembly.

On March 23, during the debate on the passage in principle of Bill 78, An Act to amend the Election Act with regard to electoral representation and political party financing rules and to amend other legislative provisions, the Minister responsible moved to divide the bill. After the Speaker ruled that the motion was in order, the Assembly debated and adopted it and the bill was divided into two separate bills:

* Bill 92--An Act to amend the Election Act with regard to electoral representation;

* Bill 93--An Act to amend the Election Act with regard to political party financing rules and to amend other legis!ative provisions.

On March 30, the Minister of Finance delivered the Budget Speech for the 2010-2011 fiscal year and the budget estimates were tabled by the Chair of the Conseil du tresor and Minister responsible for Government Administration. Before the end of the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Assembly adopted interim supply estimates granting funds to cover a quarter of the main estimates for the new fiscal year (Appropriation Act No. 1, 2010-2011). The debate on the Budget Speech, which lasts 25 hours, then began, followed by consideration of the main estimates in parliamentary committee.

Rulings from the Chair

On February 18, Speaker Yvon Valli6res handed down a ruling in response to a request for a directive about the tabling of a special warrant respecting the estimates of expenditure for the period from April 1 to June 30, 2010. The Chair of the Assembly has made clear in the past that the issuance of special warrants is a financial initiative falling within the Government's exclusive purview, and that the Chair is accordingly competent to rule neither upon the validity of such a warrant nor upon its expedience, that being the role of the courts. The Chair again expressed a concern regarding the recourse to special warrants: that it is not desirable for such warrants to supplant the...