Peter Milliken

[Government Response To Petitions, March 15th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to three petitions.

[Order In Council Appointments, March 15th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table, in both official languages, a number of order in council appointments made by the government.

Pursuant to Standing Order 110(1), these orders in council stand referred to the appropriate standing committees, a list of which is attached.

[Questions On The Order Paper, March 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

[Questions On The Order Paper, March 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, Question No. Q-2 will be answered today.

Question No. 2-

[Government Response To Petitions, March 14th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to 16 petitions.

[Questions On The Order Paper, March 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[Government's Response To Petitions, March 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 35(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to six petitions.

[Privilege, March 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, with great respect to the difficulties that have been raised, I think Your Honour will appreciate that the argument advanced by the hon. member for York South-Weston is not a valid question of privilege in the House.

Frankly he is complaining about the decision of the committee. We have heard the opposite side in effect from the hon. member for Scarborough West. I recognize the committee has a difficult decision to make with respect to votable items, particularly on the first selection when it has to choose 10 items out of the 30 on the order of precedence.

The hon. member for York South-Weston first complained about the length of time it has taken to get to this point. If he reads all of the rules relating to Private Members' Business, he will know that Private Members' Business cannot begin until there are items on the Order Paper from at least 30 members of the House. There was a lengthy delay in the early part of this Parliament in getting the requisite number of members to table motions or private members bills in order to reach the point of a draw.

That point was finally reached. A draw was held and the committee which I chair met promptly through its subcommittee. The subcommittee has met three days this week. It submitted its report this morning to the committee. That report was adopted by the committee, tabled in the House earlier this morning, and was concurred in on tabling.

The hon. member for York South-Weston was here in the last Parliament. He has known of this procedure for years. That has been the practice in the House for many years, certainly since before 1988 when I was first elected. I cannot say when the procedure was first adopted. It was modified a bit in the last Parliament to increase the number of opportunities for members to present private members bills and have them voted on in the House.

The fact that his bill was not selected is regrettable. All the bills the committee considered were important, and it came to the conclusion that certain ones would be considered in priority to others, that is they would be given a vote.

His bill will be debated in the House. It will receive an hour of debate. It may be that at the end of the time the House will be willing to allow him to go to a vote on it. I do not know; that is not a decision that I can make.

I can tell the hon. member that first of all it is not a matter for Your Honour to decide. In support of that proposition I cite page 222 of Beauchesne's sixth edition, citation 760(3):

The Speaker has ruled on many occasions that it is not competent for the Speaker to exercise procedural control over the committees. Committees are and must remain masters of their own procedure.

That is the citation and I invite Your Honour to direct the hon. member for York South-Weston to direct his criticisms, if any, to the committee. He can go there and make his submission again. He and every other member had an opportunity to appear and make their submissions before the subcommittee, which then rendered a decision.

I submit the decision was fair. He had an equal opportunity with every other member of the House who had been in on the draw to make his submission. The committee did not happen to agree with him and so he is here today complaining.

I also submit it is not a question of privilege. The committee has acted entirely properly. Its report has been tabled in the House and adopted. I suggest there is not a question of privilege here. In fact the committee has acted extremely carefully in this matter and with due consideration to all factors it is required to take into account.

[Committees Of The House, March 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs concerning the items of Private Members' Business which have been selected as votable.

Pursuant to Standing Order 92(2), this report is deemed adopted once laid upon the table.

Normally this report would not be tabled until tomorrow. There was agreement that if it were tabled this afternoon to get the information before members so they know which items have been selected Private Members' Hour would not start tomorrow but would start on Monday.

Accordingly I move, I believe with unanimous consent:

That consideration of Private Members' Business commence on Monday, March 14, 1994 at eleven o'clock a.m.

Motion agreed to

[The Budget, March 10th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am very reluctant to interrupt the question or comment period that is about to start on my learned colleague's speech, but I wonder if I might seek unanimous consent of the House to revert to presenting reports by standing and special committees. I have a committee report which I think will be of interest to members that I would like to table at this time.