Amendments to the Content of Bills / Report Stage

April 30, 1985

Debates p. 4232

When the House proceeded to report stage of Bill C-15 (Investment Canada Act) on April 23, 1985, the Speaker made a preliminary statement regarding the procedural acceptability of several motions, and invited comments from the Members before making a final ruling. In particular, the Speaker suggested that Motions Nos. 55 to 61, standing in the name of Mr. Langdon (Essex—Windsor), appeared to introduce new factors into the clause which would affect how net benefits are determined, and were therefore beyond the scope of the clause. Mr. Langdon argued that the existing clause set out factors to be taken into account, but those factors were extremely vague, very broad and covered a wide set of particular concerns, which the proposed amendments attempted to make more specific and pointed.

Issue

Is it in order to amend a clause to make more specific the factors set out in that clause?

Decision

No. The proposed amendments cannot be put to the House.

Reasons given by the Speaker

In attempting to make more specific the factors referred to in the clause, the motions introduced new proposals into the bill, proposals which were outside the scope of the clause.