Some thoughts on the future of parliamentary committees.

• Author: Marleau, Robert

This article looks at the role of the committee clerk in Canadian legislative bodies and, in particular, how some reforms have changed and may continue to change the nature of the office at both the federal and provincial/territorial level. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Special Conference on Parliamentary Committees held in Ottawa in September 1999.

Clerks, because of the nature of the profession, tend to develop an expertise in precedent and parliamentary history. Sometimes we are viewed from the outside, and perhaps even by some of our members, as being too rooted in practice and perhaps a little arcane, if not archaic. Therefore I welcome opportunities such as this to think about our role within the profession and what the future holds.

My experience with committees started in 1969 following the major reform of 1968. The rules were change to provide that virtually all bills be referred to Standing Committees. The old Committee of Supply was abolished and all Estimates were also referred to standing committees. When you compare this new situation with what committees did previously you will see that it was a veritable "revolution". The new Standing Committees were smaller, more active and quickly became engaged in the amendment of legislation. The supply process became a means to get at issues in a timely fashion without an order of reference from the House. Some committees developed a great deal of autonomy.

In 1985 the McGrath Committee made a number of recommendations which enshrined into the Standing Orders the power for committees to initiate their own inquiries. This was another watershed and from 1985 to late 1990 through the two Conservative administrations much changed in terms of how committees conducted their business. We are now living in a Parliament where there are five political parties and the government's majority is quite small. One day we may have another minority Parliament. Committee must conduct their business against whatever political backdrop the electorate dictates.

Regardless of the changing institutional context the role of committee clerks within the parliamentary system is extremely difficult, not because of procedural matters or because of the issues touched on by respective committees, but rather because of the inevitable dynamic interplay between the clerk, the department, members of Parliament, the committee staff and the committee chairman in particular.

Not only do committee clerks work independently, but often they find themselves working virtually on their own and often...