I am trying to read a statement, so the Chair requests respect. I do not want to have to ask a member to leave.
I will start again from the top.
To preserve its impartiality, the Chair must intercede as little as possible and, whenever it can, be guided by the will of the House.
Two recent events have put these limits to the test. On Friday, February 13, 2026, when the question was put on one of the report stage motions for Bill C‑14, by the Assistant Deputy Speaker, members did not indicate if the question should be carried or negatived, nor did anyone ask for a recorded vote. In this unusual situation, the Assistant Deputy Speaker relied on a relevant precedent from the United Kingdom and declared the motion negatived. Then, on Thursday, February 26, during the putting of the question on the motion to read Bill C‑15 a third time, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, who is not a member of a recognized party, asked the Chair for a recorded division. The Chair reminded the member that she could not make such a request, as this ability is reserved for members of recognized parties, under Standing Order 45(1).
That provision of the Standing Orders has been in effect since June 2023 and stems from changes the House has made to its procedures since September 2020, including an end to the practice of calling for “yeas” and “nays”. Prior to that change, any five members could rise to ask for a recorded vote further to the Chair's assessment of the result of the voice vote. Members could also indicate that a question be carried “on division” to denote that the matter was not decided unanimously, without resorting to a recorded vote.
That provision also states fairly clearly the options available to the House, as follows:
When a question is put on a motion, any member participating in person may ask that the motion be carried or carried on division. Any member of a recognized party participating in person may ask that the “yeas” and “nays” be entered in the Journals.
In other words, any single member of a recognized party can trigger a recorded vote. The provision continues:
A request for a recorded division shall take precedence over a request for adoption.
However, as we discovered on February 13, the Standing Orders in current practice are silent on what can happen if the House chooses none of the options on offer. Moreover, the Standing Orders do not seem to offer a way to negative a motion other than by recorded division. Some clarifications are in order.
If the House remains silent or if only one request to negative a motion is made, on or without division—that is, if no member clearly asks that the motion be carried—the Chair will declare the motion negatived.
Conversely, and to be clear, if the Chair hears requests to both negative and carry a matter, in the absence of a request for a recorded division, the Chair would have no alternative but to declare the motion carried, consistent with the options set out in Standing Order 45(1).
A member of a recognized party may still request a recorded division, which would take precedence over any other request. In all these circumstances, the requests must, of course, come from members participating in person.
Note also that members of unrecognized parties and independent members cannot request a recorded division. This is a rule that the House has given itself. It is, of course, the prerogative of the House to change this rule if it sees fit.
The Chair hopes that these clarifying remarks will guide members when questions are put in the future. I thank all members for their attention.