Debates of June 2nd, 2003

Don Boudria Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, there has been consultation and agreement among House leaders for the following the motion, which I would like to introduce, about a bill with minor technical corrections that I think the House would be disposed to deal with at the present moment. I move:

That, notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice, immediately after the adoption of this order, the Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons shall introduce and propose first reading of a bill entitled “An act to amend the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act and the Parliament of Canada Act”, which shall be disposed of as follows:

The House shall proceed immediately to the second reading stage of the said bill, during which, no member shall speak for more than 10 minutes; and

After not more than one hour of debate, or when no member rises to speak, whichever is earlier, the bill shall be deemed to have been read a second time on division, deemed referred to a committee of the whole and reported without amendment, deemed concurred in at the report stage on division, and deemed read a third time on division.

Don Boudria Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

moved that the bill be read the second time and referred to committee of the whole.

—Mr. Speaker, Bill C-39 presents various remedial amendments proposed by parliamentarians.

The bill rectifies the provision by which additional allowances were provided to chairs and vice-chairs of standing committees but not of special committees. This error occurred when the bill was adopted just over one year ago.

The second measure concerns a process called rounding off. Generally, the salary of parliamentarians is rounded off to the nearest hundred dollars to facilitate salary administration by the House of Commons and the staff of the Treasury Board.

In 2001, when amendments were made, the salary of ministers was excluded inadvertently from this formula. The bill therefore remedies this error, dealing not in fractions, as it were, but rounding off. Accountants and others in this House will understand the need for this measure.

The bill would also provide greater certainty for calculating the disability allowance for parliamentarians who unfortunately must resign because of a disability. Since I have been here I remember only one case which occurred a little less than a year ago.

The current provisions unfortunately, and again this is inadvertent, do not specify the salaries for the calculation. As a result additional salaries on top of the sessional allowance might not be covered in the calculation of the disability allowance should there be such a case. There is no such case before us, so it makes the debate easier at this point. However, people in the administration of the program have advised us that it is necessary to clarify that.

The chief actuary has additionally commented in his 2002 annual report that the accrual rate provision for the parliamentary pension plan for service after 2001 should be clarified again for greater certainty. The bill would clarify the application of the accrual provisions for post-2001 service. There would be no changes to pension policies at all. There are no policy issues at all in the bill. They are merely technical corrections

In summary then, the bill would make several technical corrections and does not in any way affect existing policies. I want the House to be assured of that. The bill has been prepared in consultation with other House leaders and I thank them for their support. It has been prepared together with officials of the Privy Council Office, the Treasury Board and I believe House of Commons administration as well in order to clarify the actual functioning of the legislation.

I trust that members from all sides will give support to the measure as quickly as possible.