16. The Legislative Process
The average man, bewildered and
overpowered by the thousands of laws and regulations which press in upon him and
increasingly restrict his freedom, his right to make decisions, would be left
absolutely defenceless without an active parliament with the strength and
vitality which it must possess.
G.W. Baldwin, m.p. (Peace River)
(Debates, December 10, 1968, p. 3791)
T
he examination and enactment of
legislation are often regarded as the most significant task of Parliament. It is
therefore not surprising that the legislative process takes up a major portion
of Parliament’s
time. [1]
But what
exactly is the legislative process? There are those who have defined it as a
series of actions leading to the proclamation of a statute. The parliamentary
stages that are the subject of this chapter are the final links in a much longer
process that starts with the proposal, formulation and drafting of a bill,
normally by extra-parliamentary bodies.
In the Parliament of Canada, as in all
legislative assemblies based on the British model, there is a clearly defined
method for enacting legislation. A bill must go through a number of very
specific stages in the House of Commons and the Senate before it becomes law. In
parliamentary jargon, these stages make up what is called the legislative
process. When the House of Commons and the Senate pass a bill, they are asking
the Crown to proclaim that this text is the law of the land. Once Royal Assent
is given to the bill, it is transformed from a bill to a statute. Because the
process by which a legislative proposal becomes first a bill, and then a law,
takes place in Parliament, the product — the statute — is often called
an “Act of
Parliament”. [2]
Traditionally, the process begins with a
bill being introduced in one of the Houses of Parliament and ends with the
ceremony of Royal Assent, which brings together the three constituent elements
of Parliament: the Crown, the Senate and the House of Commons. The process is
complex, but the validation of a statute is the result of the approval of the
same text by the three constituent elements of Parliament.
This chapter will examine the stages that a
public bill must go through before becoming law. Private bills follow
essentially the same stages, but they must be initiated by a petition and are
subject to certain special
rules. [3]