Mr. Speaker, I rise in response to a point of order that was raised by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons last Thursday regarding two motions that were before the House last week. One was a concurrence motion by my colleague from Windsor West on a report from industry committee; the second was a supply day motion by the official opposition. The parliamentary secretary's argument was that the rule of anticipation applied to these two motions.
Although we had started the concurrence motion, we had not completed it. In fact, we still had a little better than an hour and a half to go before the debate would have been completed and the motion put to a vote. The parliamentary secretary argued that it should be ruled out of order because the same issue had been dealt with in the official opposition's supply day motion. That is the factual situation.
I was a bit disturbed by the parliamentary secretary's argument. He quoted selectively from O'Brien and Bosc, leaving the clear impression, at least to me, that the rule of anticipation was a standing rule of the House.
The reality is that it never has been a rule of the House, and this can be found on page 560 of O'Brien and Bosc. It is a rule in Westminster, but it has never been one here. When attempts were made to apply it in the past, at least in one circumstance, it was determined that it did not apply, as O'Brien and Bosc specifically state. In the other times, its application was inconclusive.
A debate was going on when the rule was applied initially. Questions were being asked in anticipation of a supply bill that was to come later in the day. Initially the Speaker ruled the questions out of order because debate was anticipated later in the day.
As a result of a 1997 ruling that was surprising to a number of members of the House, the issue was referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. Mr. Marleau was asked to attend and he made certain representations to committee. As a result of those representations, a report went back to the House, and subsequently the Speaker ruled that questions of that nature were applicable, and that the rule of anticipation was not. And so it was allowed to go ahead.
We are not dealing with the same factual situation here. We are dealing with two separate motions, one being a concurrence motion from a committee.
In that regard, Mr. Speaker, it is important that you take into account that in 2004 changes were made to the Standing Orders of the House. The change with regard to this particular motion makes it clear that a concurrence motion is one on which the House is guaranteed a vote. The rule provides for that. It applies to the factual situation we have here. It carries more weight than what is really a nonexistent rule.
One might be able to argue that the rule of anticipation could have some application in the House, because we often draw on precedent from other Parliaments, Westminster in particular. But when we have a specific rule, as we do here, that guarantees the House the right to vote on a concurrence motion on the work done in a committee, our rules govern and they are clear.
My argument, Mr. Speaker, is that, if you have to choose between the Standing Order with regard to concurrence reports, including the right to vote on them, and a rule of anticipation that arguably does not exist, except in one area, I believe you should apply the Standing Order that allows us to have the debate and the vote on a concurrence motion.
In summary, the position we are putting forward to the House today is this. We have already had the ruling that questions in the House are not barred by the rule of anticipation. We believe that if you make the ruling we are proposing, that motions, whether they originate from private members or the government, are not precluded by the rule of anticipation.
However, in our view, if two pieces of legislation are identical or very similar, they should not be allowed on the order paper at the same time. We believe that the rule of anticipation should in fact apply to that situation. Otherwise, we would have extended debates, perhaps repeatedly. A bill could be put forward, defeated, and then brought forward again and again. The House could end up being tied up forever on it. There are good arguments for applying the rule of anticipation to bills but not to questions or motions.