Bills (either public or private) and motions (including motions for papers) sponsored by Members not of the Ministry are considered on Mondays from 11:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m., and on Fridays from 1:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. and constitute Private Members' Business. (Because private bills are considered in a somewhat different manner than other items, they are dealt with separately in Chapter 11.)
Notice
A private Member's public bill requires 48 hours' notice before the Member may ask for leave of the House to introduce the bill. Thereafter, the bill is read a first time and printed, but two weeks must elapse before a motion for second reading and reference to a committee may be moved during Private Members' Business.
A private Member's motion, having first appeared in the Notice Paper, requires two weeks before it may be moved during Private Members' Business.
The procedure for motions for papers is somewhat different. When a Member's "Notice of Motion for the Production of Papers" is called after Routine Proceedings on Wednesdays, either the Government or the Member may request that the motion be transferred to "Notices of Motions (Papers)" for debate, whereupon it is included among the items considered under Private Members' Business.
The Draw
The Standing Orders provide that the House shall consider 30 items of Private Members' Business (an equal number of bills and motions), in the sequence established by a draw of Members' names at the beginning of a session and from time to time thereafter. These items constitute an "order of precedence" and appear in numerical sequence from 1 to 30 on the Order Paper. Those not placed in the order of precedence also appear on the Order Paper in a separate list under "Items Outside the Order of Precedence". During the session, any Member may give notice of an item of Private Members' Business. After the notice period has been met, a bill must first be introduced, read a first time, printed and ordered for second reading, after which it is added to the list of "Items Outside the Order of Precedence"; if the item is a motion, it is added to the list immediately; if it is a motion for the production of papers, the item is included in this same list once it has been called on a Wednesday and transferred to "Notices of Motions (Papers)". Orders concerning private bills and public bills originating in the Senate as well as orders for the consideration of any subsequent stages of a bill already considered during Private Members' Business are not affected by the draw, but are automatically placed at the bottom of the order of precedence.
At the beginning of each hour of Private Members' Business, the House considers the first item in the order of precedence. As noted below, most items are dropped from the order of precedence altogether after consideration for an hour; others, however, are retained in the order of precedence and, after first consideration, are placed at the bottom of the list to await their turn for subsequent consideration. When the number of items has been reduced to no fewer than 15, another draw is conducted of Members' names so that new bills or motions from the "Items Outside the Order of Precedence" may be selected to bring the number of items within the order of precedence up to 30 again.
Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs
The Standing Orders provide that the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs chooses a maximum of ten "votable" or "selected" items (five motions and five bills) from the 30 items in the order of precedence. As described in the following section, these selected items remain in the order of precedence and eventually must come to a vote.
In selecting these items, the Committee may hear the sponsor of each motion or bill in the order of precedence, and then proceeds in camera to make its final decision. A report is prepared, and the Committee's selection is deemed concurred in when such report is tabled in the House. In the First Session of the 33rd Parliament, the committee responsible for Private Members' Business developed certain criteria in selecting items of Private Members' Business which should come to a vote, and tabled this list in its Second Report to the House. In its Eighth Report, tabled in October 1987, the committee identified two additional criteria. The complete list is as follows:
1.Private Members' bills or motions may be of national, regional
or local significance, highly contentious or non- controversial;
but to be selected as "votable items", motions or bills must not
be trivial or insignificant.
2.Bills or motions which appear to discriminate in favour of or
against a certain area or region in the country should not be
selected as "votable items".
3.Bills regarding electoral boundaries or constituency names
should not be selected. The Committee feels that other
avenues are available to Members without using up to five
hours [reduced to three hours in April 1991] of
Private Members' time allotted to "votable items".
4.The bill or motion should not require obvious amendment
because it is substantially redundant with the law, is
fundamentally ineffective to implement its own intent, is
unclear in its meaning or is otherwise defective in its drafting.
5.The subject of the motion or bill should be different from
specific matters already declared by the government to be on
its legislative agenda.
6.Depending on the context of political issues and events, the
number of times a topic has appeared in the House may be of
significance.
7.All other factors being equal, lower priority should be given
to motions which deal with matters which the House could
address in some other way or through another procedure.
8.Motions couched in partisan terms should not be selected.
The Committee believes that such language could have the
effect of violating the spirit of reform of Private Members'
Business if a division were required on a motion of this kind.
9.Bills will be set aside in this selection process if they are
clearly unconstitutional in that they infringe upon
provincial legislative authority, the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms or other entrenched constitutional rules; or if
they impede or are contrary to normal federal-provincial or
international relations.
10.Bills or motions relating to a question that is substantially the
same as a question already voted on by the House in the
session should not be selected as "votable items".
11.Items relating to a question that is substantially the same as
a question contained in an item already selected as a "votable
item" in the session should not be selected.
Allocation of Time in the House
An item not selected to come to a vote by the Procedure and House Affairs Committee is debated for up to one hour and then dropped from the Order Paper. A selected or "votable" item, if not otherwise disposed of after its first consideration, is placed at the bottom of the order of precedence, where it moves toward the top as each item above it is considered in order during successive Private Members' Hours. Once it reaches the top again, it is debated for a second time and, if not otherwise disposed of, returns to the bottom of the list. After a selected item has thus been the object of debate for a maximum of three hours, it must come to a vote.
The procedure for motions for papers varies in two ways from that for other items of Private Members' Business. Such motions, if drawn for inclusion on the order of precedence, need not be selected as "votable" items, since the Standing Orders specify that they must receive a total of one hour and forty minutes of consideration, at the end of which time the Speaker puts the question. Thus, after being considered once during Private Members' Hour, a motion for papers is not, as other non-selected items are, dropped from the Order Paper. Rather, the motion is placed at the bottom of the order of precedence, and when it reaches the top, is considered a second time. If the time taken for the first and second consideration totals one hour and forty minutes, the Speaker puts the question.
When a selected item which is a motion eventually comes to a vote, the House concludes by rendering its opinion, and the motion is either agreed to or negatived. If the selected item is a public bill, the vote is on second reading and reference to a committee. If negatived, the bill is dropped from the Order Paper; if agreed to, it is referred to a committee for clause-by-clause consideration and possible amendment. (The Standing Orders impose no limit on the time for consideration in committee.) When the bill is reported back to the House, it is placed at the bottom of the order of precedence and considered at report stage when it reaches the top. The procedure for private bills varies only slightly from that for public bills.
If the bill is not otherwise disposed of after the first consideration at report stage, it drops once more to the bottom of the order of precedence until it reaches the top again and is considered a second time. Fifteen minutes before the end of the time provided for this second consideration, all questions necessary to dispose of the bill at report stage and third reading are put, and the bill is either sent to the Senate for its consideration (if the bill originated in the House), or for Royal Assent (if the bill originated in the Senate) or, if defeated, is dropped from the Order Paper.
The Standing Orders provide that debate during the first consideration at report stage may, on motion, be extended by five hours on the second day if the House agrees. However, such a motion is deemed withdrawn if fewer than 20 Members rise to support it.
Exchange of Items
A Member whose motion or bill is scheduled for consideration during Private Members' Hour and who is unable to be present that day to move the motion or motion respecting the bill may notify the Speaker in writing 48 hours in advance. The Standing Orders then authorize the Speaker, with the permission of the Members involved, to arrange an exchange with another item on the order of precedence. Private Members' Hour then proceeds as usual. Should such an exchange be impossible, Private Members' Hour is suspended for that day, and the House simply continues with whatever business was previously before it. In the event that a Member whose item of Private Members' Business is scheduled for that day does not or cannot provide the 48 hours' notice that he or she will be absent, Private Members' Hour is suspended and the House reverts to the business previously before it. The scheduled item is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence. Whenever Private Members' Business is suspended or not taken up on a Monday, this time will be used for the consideration of Government Orders.
Suspension of Private Members' Hour
Private Members' Business is considered five times a week for one hour each day. Aside from those instances already referred to whereby the consideration of Private Members' Business is suspended, the Standing Orders specify certain other occasions for the suspension of these proceedings namely:
on any day designated for resuming debate on the Address in
Reply to the Speech from the Throne;
during any Emergency Debate on a Friday;
on any day prior to the establishment of an order of
precedence for Private Members' Business;
on any day when a Minister moves a motion and debate
subsequently takes place on a matter the Government
considers to be of an urgent nature;
on any day where the beginning of Private Members'
Business is delayed or Private Members' Business Hour is
interrupted such that the delay or interruption continues past
30 minutes after the time at which Private
Members' Business Hour would normally have ended;
on the last allotted day of the supply period ending June 23
(except if it should fall on a Monday); and
during any day for resuming debate on the Budget motion.
Finally, as much of Private Members' Hour as is necessary is suspended on days when the House continues to sit past the normal time for Routine Proceedings in order to complete "Introduction of Government Bills".
In summary, a non-votable motion or bill is debated during Private Members' Business for up to one hour and then dropped from the Order Paper. A votable motion can be debated for up to three hours before coming to a vote. A votable bill can be debated for up to three hours at second reading and then, if agreed to, is referred to committee. Upon its return to the House, it can have up to two hours of debate or, on motion to extend, up to seven hours of debate at report stage and third reading. The Standing Orders provide for the interruption of proceedings "not later than fifteen minutes before the end of the time provided for the consideration thereof" so that all questions can be put forthwith.
