Mr. Speaker, I thank the government side. We will be supporting the bill wholeheartedly.
The bill will provide an alternative to the royal assent procedure currently used in the Canadian parliament so that royal assent will be signified by a written declaration similar to that used in Australia and the United Kingdom for many years. It will preserve at least one traditional royal assent ceremony per year. These procedures will take place during the parliamentary session in which both Houses pass the bill.
The first appropriation bill presented for assent in any session, however, will require a formal assent ceremony. The procedure for appropriation bills is slightly different in that the Speaker of the House of Commons presents them as a reminder that it is the House that grants aids and supplies and has the pre-eminent role in voting supply. The requirement that the first appropriation bill in a session be given royal assent in the traditional form will also assure the occasional holding of a formal ceremony.
The bill also provides that royal assent be signified in a traditional ceremony on at least one occasion in each calendar year. The bill proposes that the Speaker or person acting as the Speaker notify both the Senate and the House of Commons of a written declaration of royal assent. The bill also provides that where royal assent was signified by written declaration, the date of assent would be the day on which the declaration was reported in both chambers. This would be particularly relevant to bills that came into force upon royal assent or on a day related to the date of royal assent.
Most countries with a Westminster style of parliament have abandoned the royal assent ceremony. Canada appears to be unique among Commonwealth countries in retaining the procedure. The question of reforming the royal assent process in the Canadian parliament has arisen on a number of occasions in recent years. Throughout the eighties and nineties, committees of the House and the Senate studying parliamentary reform have all recommended that the royal assent ceremony be replaced with a written message and that the traditional practice be maintained for occasional and special uses. Bills to implement this recommendation have been drafted and have ground slowly through other parliaments, but were never given the priority to reach fruition. Perhaps it is the government's thin agenda that will finally give this new procedure life.
This change improves efficiency of the House and maintains the traditional ceremony when such a ceremony is desirable. The official opposition, as I have said, supports the bill and the official opposition would like to see more parliamentary reform, particularly in the area of private members' business. Over 70% of our members polled on this issue felt that reform was needed. Two hundred and thirty-five bills have been introduced by MPs from all political parties. None have made it past third reading. Only two House private members' bills have made it to a vote at second reading, less than 1%. The two bills that did make it into committee stage from the 36th parliament were killed in committee by the Liberal majority on those committees.
Liberals avoid voting on controversial issues by not deeming them votable. Senate private bills have been successful. The only three bills that have received royal assent have come from the Senate. They are: Bill S-10, parliamentary poet laureate; Bill S-14, Sir John A. Macdonald and Wilfrid Laurier Day; and Bill S-22, national horse of Canada. Of the 481 motions introduced, only 5 have been adopted, just over 1%.
We have had over 150 hours of debate in the House during this parliament for consideration of private members' business. If we consider that the budget of the House is $300 million, at a 1,000 hours per year that is $300,000 per hour. If we apply that to the amount of time used up by private members' business, we get $45 million of House time used to no avail.
The procedure and House affairs committee took on the task of reforming private members' business. It began in the fall of 2001 and had until April 2002 to come to some sort of arrangement to make all items votable. It decided in December 2001 that it could not do anything about it. The truth is that the government did not want to do anything about it.
Recently a rare event occurred. The Liberal majority on the procedure and House affairs committee actually allowed a bill to enjoy votable status, the bill of the member for Esquimalt--Juan de Fuca to decriminalize the use and possession of marijuana. However, as you are aware, Mr. Speaker, the government moved a poison pill amendment and had the bill withdrawn. The Prime Minister giveth and he taketh away.
The backbench should stand up to the Prime Minister and show him who is boss. It is the Prime Minister who is accountable to the House, not the other way around. If there were a few stray votes here and there, the Prime Minister might pay attention and he might even listen. He might even learn to respect the backbench, the House and democracy.
That being said, we support the bill. We wish the government well in bringing forth more reforms in the House of Commons, which members of the House from all sides would be quite happy to support.