Procedure and House Affairs committee  I haven't written it down yet, but--

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I assume discussions have been done and there has been a motion in the House to do it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That I don't know for sure. There could have times when this particular modification has been asked for in the past.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I wouldn't be able to speak authoritatively on what's happened and whether this has happened before. I know there have certainly been appearances of this in how opposition days have been working recently, but there hasn't been a formal change to the standing order recently.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're not really changing it, because we just recommend to the House. We make a report, and then the House will proceed from there. The committee has the power to study and report to the House.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Exactly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My history with this committee is relatively short. Since I've been with the committee, I don't think they've done a report to the House to do changes to standing orders, but it certainly is within our mandate to do so. Under the mandate in Standing Order 108(3), it says that we deal with all issues relating to standing orders of the House.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Sure. Standing Order 108(3)(a)(iii) reads: “the review of and report on the Standing Orders, procedure and practice in the House and its committees”. It's a very broad mandate. We have several under the Standing Orders, but that is one of them.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I said, the committee can study it and report to the House, but it's the House that would decide on whether they adopt it or concur in our report.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's for the committee and the House to decide.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Once again, it's for the committee to decide.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's because we're partway through the financial cycle, so this reflects a calendar year rather than a parliamentary financial cycle. It would start in the next financial period. It will be starting in January and go to March because we're finishing this financial cycle or this budgetary cycle on December 10, so if this practice is to reflect what will happen in the year 2011, it has to start in the first financial cycle, which starts in January and goes to March 26.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The standing order is modified in this fashion until another amendment is made. This would be the way it would work in 2011, so regardless of what government came in, unless they moved a motion to change how the standing order worked, this would be how it would work until the end of 2011.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Exactly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't think there would be any impact on other standing orders. I would really have to do a bit of research on that, but I know there have been modifications on how the particular standing orders dealing with the financial cycle have worked to reflect where we are in the cycle when Parliament begins.