Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Earlier today the draft appropriation bill was circulated. I want to draw the House's attention to schedule 1, vote 40 for the Treasury Board Secretariat. The language used for vote 40 differs substantially from the language used in the estimates document. The estimates describe vote 40 as follows:
“Budget implementation $7,040,392,000”
Authority granted to the Treasury Board to supplement, in support of initiatives announced in the Budget of February 27, 2018, any appropriation for the fiscal year, including to allow for the provision of new grants or for any increase to the amount of a grant that is listed in any of the Estimates for the fiscal year, as long as the expenditures made possible are not otherwise provided for and are within the legal mandates of the departments or other organizations for which they are made
This is the language deemed to have been adopted and reported to the House by the government operations and estimates committee. The schedule description in the draft supply bill would confer different authority on the government, none of it approved or deemed to have been approved by the House. In short, the government is seeking new authority for unknown, unspecified spending of public monies without telling Parliament. It is creating what is commonly known as a slush fund by seeking to make expenditures based on the budget document rather than the estimates document, which carries the constitutionally significant recommendation of the Governor General.
I refer the Speaker to sections 53 and 54 of the Constitution Act, 1867, Standing Orders 79 and 80, chapter 18 of the third edition of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, and Sessional Paper No. 8520-421-181, which was transmitted to the House on April 16 in the form of a message from Her Excellency the Governor General, signed by her own hand. These are the main estimates.
Let me draw everyone's attention to page 883 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, which states, “Concurrence in the estimates or in interim supply is an order of the House to bring in an appropriation bill or bills giving effect to the spending authority (amounts and destinations) that the House has approved.” I emphasize, “that the House has approved”. It continues, “Supply bills must be based on the estimates or interim supply as concurred in by the House.” Again I emphasize, “as concurred in by the House”. The same language appears in the first and second editions.
Table A2.11 originated in the finance minister's budget. It is not contained in the estimates, is not part of the recommendations of the Governor General, has not been considered or concurred in by any committee, has not been concurred in by the House. Nor has any committee reported to the House to advocate that it be included in the supply bill.
It is not open to the government to create, delete, or alter the authority and purposes of the appropriation bill by inventing new language in this schedule, which alters the decisions of the House as expressed when it has concurred in the estimates contained in Sessional Paper No. 8520-421-181. The government is not entitled to rewrite the estimates in ways that amend the decisions of the House.
Let me conclude with a word of caution to the House, particularly in light of the present-day political conditions in the Senate.
Citation 619 of the sixth edition of Beauchesne's states:
The legal right of the Senate, as a co-ordinate branch of the Legislature, to withhold their assent from any bill whatsoever is unquestionable. They may refuse to pass any bill, including money bills. Therefore the House should be cautious that a Supply Bill contains nothing extraneous so that the Senate will not depart from its normal practice of passing such bills as a matter of course.