Senate.

• Author: Belzile, Marie-Eve
• Position: Legislative Reports

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Governor General Michaelle Jean read the Speech from the Throne to open the third session of the 40th Parliament on March 3, 2010. The five new Conservative senators who had been appointed in January 2010 (Robert Runciman, Vim Kochhar, Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, Elizabeth Marshall and Rose-May Poirier) were sworn in the same day in the Senate Chamber.

In accordance with tradition, the Senate's first item of business following the Speech from the Throne is the proforma bill S-1, an Act relating to railways. The Deputy Leader of the Government introduced the bill and it was read for the first time. No debate follows as the first reading of the bill affirms the Senate's independence in relation to the Crown and its right to debate any issue it chooses without reference to the policies and plans outlined in the Speech from the Throne.

It is customary for two new senators to move and second the motion for an Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. On March 4, senators Poirier and Runciman made their maiden speeches in the Senate during the debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. The Address was adopted on April 14 on division.

Parliament Resumes--Bills

As soon as the new session began, senators quickly began to place Senate public bills on the Senate agenda. Bills that do not receive royal assent before Parliament is prorogued or dissolved die on the Order Paper and must be tabled again at the start of a new session and move through the standard process of three readings.

The bills of Senator Pierrette Ringuette, S-201, An Act to amend the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act (credit and debit cards) and S-202, An Act to amend the Canadian Payments Act (debit card payment systems), were the first to be tabled in the Senate on March 4. They had been at second reading when the previous session was prorogued.

Bill S-203, An Act respecting a National Philanthropy Day, was also reintroduced the day following the Speech from the Throne. It had received three readings in the Senate and reached the committee stage in the House of Commons during the previous session. The bill had originally been tabled in the Senate by Senator Jerry Grafstein during the first session of the 38th Parliament. As Senator Grafstein has since retired, Senator Terry Mercer tabled the bill this time.

Bills by senators C61ine Hervieux-Payette (S-204 and S-296), Joseph Day (S-208), Pamela Wallin (S-209)...