Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to ask for your interpretation of the impending conflict with our Standing Orders and procedures that you just raised.
Normally, the Chair does not intervene on hypothetical questions, but this one is becoming more and more likely every day and could have very real implications. As we know, we have two privilege motions before the House and probably a third one coming up. However, we also have to vote on the supplementary estimates that the government has tabled for consideration during the supply period ending December 10, not to mention the four remaining opposition days.
For some time now, many people have been wondering what will happen to the opposition days and the estimates this fall. On the one hand, Standing Order 48(1) states:
(1) Whenever any matter of privilege arises, it shall be taken into consideration immediately.
As you mentioned earlier, page 151 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, explains what this means:
A privilege motion once under debate has priority over all Orders of the Day including Government Orders and Private Members' Business.... Should debate on a privilege motion not be completed by the ordinary hour of daily adjournment, this item will take priority over all other Orders of the Day at the next sitting. It will appear on the Order Paper under Orders of the Day before all other orders.
In fact, this has been our reality for the past two months. On the other hand, however, Standing Order 81(10)(a) provides the following:
In any calendar year, seven sitting days shall be allotted to the Business of Supply for the period ending not later than December 10....
Although we think of them as opposition days, they are actually intended for supplies that are, of course, listed in government orders. The use of the word “shall” in the Standing Orders implies that it is imperative that we have opposition days, and here is what we read at page 857 of Bosc and Gagnon:
If the government fails to designate the prescribed number of allotted days, the remaining days in that period will be designated by default.
That statement is important. It echoes Speaker Fraser's rulings on March 22 and 26, 1990, at pages 9628 and 9758 of the Debates. In the second ruling, he said the following: “The Standing Orders list the number of allotted days there will be in each supply period and where the Government has failed to designate sufficient days to meet the requirements of the Standing Orders, by attrition those days left in the period must become allotted days, when no other alternative is possible in order to comply with the Standing Orders.” That is what happened in this instance.
The events of 1990 are not identical to today's circumstances. In fact, there are a few distinct features to consider. First, Speaker Fraser's ruling was about the order of precedence for Government Orders. It was essentially intended to limit the government's usual flexibility in scheduling Government Orders. Today, we are dealing with motions of privilege that are different from and procedurally superior to Government Orders. Second, the old principle underlying our supply procedures is described as “grievances before supply”. It would be unwise for the government not to respect the power and authority of Parliament.
Consequently, we will only take up the matter of supply if, and only if, the House succeeds in adopting Government Orders on the scheduled dates. Page 151 of Bosc and Gagnon explains the following: “However, the debate does not interfere with Routine Proceedings, Statements by Members, Question Period, Royal Assent, deferred recorded divisions or the adjournment of the House”. We experience this on a daily basis, too.
Simply put, under our Standing Orders, all these things need to happen, and they are happening. Standing Order 81(10)(a) states that four more opposition days need to be held this fall. By way of analogy, does that mean that even if the privilege motions remain outstanding, we will debate opposition motions on December 5, 6, 9 and 10?
Mr. Speaker, I understand that these matters are important, and that is why I wanted to raise them immediately, both to give you time to reflect on them and to give the parties time to make arrangements in response to your decision.