A Quick Abstract of How Parliament Usually Functions
For this chapter, I am just going to outline very briefly how a bill goes through our parliamentary system and becomes law. It will be brief. This is just the basics.
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The two houses of Parliament are the House of Commons (HOC) and the Senate. Although members of both houses are technically all Members of Parliament, the term Member of Parliament usually applies to Members of the House of Commons. The term senator applies to the Senators.
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Chamber of House of Commons Chamber of Senate
There are currently 338 Members of the House of Commons (HOC). All Members of Parliament are elected.
There are 105 Senate seats in total. Senators are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Senators must be between 35 and 75 years of age.
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House of Commons seats are allocated based on population. Additional HOC seats are added as populations change.
Senate seats are allocated based on regional representation.
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The Stages for Bills to become Laws in Canada
House of Commons Process
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The first step is Notice to the Clerk of the House of Commons that a Bill is to be tabled.
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Introduction of the Bill, or First Reading. No Debate and no vote.
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Second Reading of the Bill, with Debate and a Vote
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Committee stage. The Bill is then sent to committee where arguments for and against the Bill are heard. Witnesses are called and there is a vote at committee. The committee might amend the bill or might not.
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Report Stage, where the Bill is heard and voted on. Committee amendments are voted on as well.
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Third Reading is the final step in the HOC process. The Bill now goes to the Senate where it starts a similar second process of examination by Senators.
Senate Process
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First Reading. The Bill is available to Senators, but no debate or vote
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Second Reading. Debated and voted on. If passed at second reading, the Bill goes to committee.
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Committee Stage. Witnesses are called and arguments for and against are heard. The committee votes on the Bill as amended or as original sent to them.
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Report stage where all senators consider the amendments and all aspects of the Bill. There is a Vote.
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Third Reading. The final vote in the Senate. If the Bill is adopted in the Senate, it goes back the House of Commons.
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Once both the HOC and the Senate agree on the exact same form, it receives Royal Assent from the governor General and becomes law.
Most Bills start in the HOC but a few start in the Senate. The process can be reversed and a bill could start in the Senate. A good example is Senator Jim Quinn’s Bill S-273, an Act which would require the Government of Canada to pay for all of the cost to protect the Isthmus of Chignecto based on the fact that it is in the interests of all of Canada.
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Bills can be "Government Bills" tabled by Government Minister. Bills can also come from MPs in which case they are called 'Private Members Bills". The system is intended to allow each MP to have one private member's bill tabled per four year term. The order of PMBs is chosen by a draw. There are rules that restrict what a PMB could cover but they are quite flexible. One of my PMBS was M-235, a motion to require the government to establish a Brain Tumor Registry. A second one was a Bill C-391, a motion to require the government to create a structure so that First Nations could repatriate their historic artifacts. Both of those PMBs passed in the House of Commons.
Some interesting points about the make-up of “the Government”, Cabinet etc.
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Although a political party may have 200 seats and form “the Government”, the actual Government is only the ministers or cabinet. All other members of the governing party are considered “supporters of the Government” …but they are not “members of the government”.
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Ministers are given the title of “Honourable” and are admitted to the “Privy Council”. This body was originally created to give advice the King or Queen of the day.
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Each minister can have one or more Parliamentary Secretaries to help with their parliamentary duties. Often the Parliamentary secretaries have unique “hands on” knowledge of the department and can be of significant assistance.
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In the center of the Chamber sits "the Clerk" and the Clerk's staff. They are very knowledgeable about procedure and the rules and regulations. They help all MPS equally no matter whether they are government or opposition. They can also provide extensive research through the Library of Parliament.
Votes in the HOC are usually directed by the “Party Whip”. It is the exception that an MP would vote outside the Party recommendation. Below is a ”Score Sheet” which is passed out to every MP by their party Whip for every vote. With no explanation, MPs are told how the party MPs are voting on a particular vote. This Score Sheet has only one vote but often there will be five or six votes at a times and the Score Sheet will tell each MP how to vote… again with no explanation.
At first when I was an “Independent” I would gather up all of the party score sheets to see how they were voting. Very soon I realized that my job was now very simple…… read the legislation and decide if it was good for my province or not, and then vote and that’s exactly what I did.
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A typical Score Card instructing MPs how to vote with the party on an particular Bill. All parties use them.
Committees are very effective and are probably the least partisan part of Parliament. Each of the parties has representation on each committee based on the number of members they have in the House. A Chair is elected and serves usually for the full term. The House of Commons provides extra assistance in the form of knowledgeable clerks and researchers. Without them, the committee system would not work.
For my last four years in Parliament I chaired the Standing Committee on Health and heard some of the most fascinating and troubling testimony I have ever heard. I often thought that if every Canadian could sit in on this committee and listen to the witnesses that came before the Health Committee… a lot of attitudes would change.
This particular committee had MPs from the four parties. Each MP came to the committee having done their homework and focused on making the lives of Canadians better. They were great to work with.