The new senate: still in transition.

AuthorFurey, George J.

Over the course of the past two years, a confluence of events has dramatically altered Canada's Senate. The upper chamber's response to the Auditor General's Report on Senators' Expenses, the absence of a government caucus in the Senate at the start of the 42nd Parliament, and a new appointment process that brought in a significant number of Independent senators have all contributed to institutional change. In this article, based on his remarks to the 34th Canadian Presiding Officers Conference, Senator George J. Furey provides some observations of the impact of these events from his unique vantage point as Speaker. While acknowledging that these changes have created some tensions, he concludes that this transition can be defined by openness, flexibility, adaptability and a general willingness to move forward slowly without forcing permanent rule changes until the landscape is better defined.

After decades of reform proposals, a recent change has had a significant impact on the Senate. This change is reducing the partisan character of the Senate and making it a more independent, non-affiliated and deliberative body. What is curious about this change, is that it was achieved by non-constitutional means.

For years, proposals to reform the Senate to make it elected, to limit the mandate and to change the level of representation of each province went nowhere and as we now know, for good reason. The Supreme Court of Canada's decision on the Senate reference in April 2014, noted that any substantive reform of the Senate along these lines would require at a minimum support of seven provinces representing 50 per cent of the Canadian population. The abolition of the Senate would require unanimity. None of this is likely to happen soon. Yet a significant change that has already improved the image of the Senate was achieved by an approach taken by the current government to implement a new non-partisan, merit-based process for Senate appointments. This change did not require any sort of statutory approval, but was done within the framework of the Prime Minister's Office.

The new appointment process was applied to fill the large number of vacant seats left by the previous government. One might say that timing and circumstances lent themselves to the "real change" that was promised for the Senate. After all, there were 22 vacant seats in the Senate when Prime Minister Trudeau's government took over in October 2015.

Another important factor reinforcing the impact of the large number of appointments was the fact that the Senate, itself, was addressing the fallout from the Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Senate of Canada on Senators' Expenses. In the lead-up to Autumn 2015, invaluable work had already been accomplished by the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration, to make the Senate more accountable and transparent.

The Senate now has an online attendance register, as well as a new expense disclosure model which provides more information on travel expenses, service contracts and hospitality expenses. We can expect that over the course of the coming year an independent oversight body will be established. The Communications Directorate has been completely restructured to provide more robust coverage of the work done by the Senate and...

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