Standing Orders and Procedure
The Standing Orders provide for a one-day
special debate on the Standing Orders and procedures of the House and its
committees early in each
Parliament. [42]
This provision was adopted by the House in 1982 on the
recommendation of a special committee on procedure which believed an opportunity
should be provided for Members to express their views on this
matter. [43]
Initiating Debate
The Standing Order in question provides for
an automatic debate on the motion “That this House takes note of the
Standing Orders and procedures of the House and its committees” on a day
designated by a Minister between the sixtieth and ninetieth sitting day of the
first session of a Parliament. If no day is designated, the debate is held on
the ninetieth sitting day. [44]
This Standing Order was adopted in 1982.
Such a debate on the rules and procedures of the House could have first occurred
in 1984; however, well before the sixtieth day, the House unanimously agreed to
suspend the Standing
Order. [45]
The next
opportunity for the House to hold the debate came in 1988, but the First Session
of the Thirty-Fourth Parliament ended after only 11 sitting days, thereby
pre-empting the operation of the Standing Order. In 1994, during the First
Session of the Thirty-Fifth Parliament, the House agreed to suspend this
Standing Order at the same time as it adopted several amendments to the Standing
Orders and referred a number of procedural matters to the Standing Committee on
Procedure and House
Affairs. [46]
In 1998,
during the First Session of the Thirty-Sixth Parliament, a debate was held
pursuant to this Standing Order for the first
time. [47]
Rules of Debate
Debate on the motion takes precedence over
all other business and lasts a maximum of one sitting day; the proceedings on
the motion expire when the debate has concluded or at the ordinary hour of daily
adjournment, whichever comes
first. [48]
The motion
is deemed to have been
proposed [49]
and, to
encourage participation, no Member may speak more than once or longer than 10
minutes. [50]