Procedure and House Affairs committee  I know it's a nuance.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Do you mean about the difference between what's being proposed? The first half, the first paragraph, is identical to the existing standing order, except for the wording “in 2011”. It has been substituted for “in any calendar year”, and the motion adds a second paragraph. I believe there are three supply periods; it delineates the minimum number of sitting days and the maximum number of sitting days for each of those supply periods.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The order that they're given in is switched, but in the first paragraph....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I wasn't curious enough to check, but I should have.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's somewhat self-explanatory.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  He wanted to bring forward the idea of obtaining the majority consensus prior to a prorogation occurring. That was just for that particular measure. Yes, there were witnesses, including Mr. Mendes, who thought there should be a standing order amendment and a piece of legislation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Mendes had noted that, in his view, there was an unwritten practice whereby--when prompted, I believe he noted this--the Speaker does, at the beginning of a session, bring something to the Governor General...?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This was in his opening testimony.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In both instances the witnesses had suggested modifying or altering to do with the relationship between the Governor General...that presupposed that the system itself with respect to prorogation was fine in the status quo. In fact one of the witnesses, Mr. Monahan, stated that hard cases make bad law, and that if we want to fix something, we ought to look at the process through which a Governor General is appointed.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This is where I put, to use the chair's expression, one-off options. Some of them were in fact means and not ends, so I ended up putting them there. They simply said this is what should happen, but they did not suggest the avenue to get there, whereas the paper was sort of organized by avenues.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  A constitutional convention is a practice that is established over time. A referendum is a poll of the people at one particular instant.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Russell and Mr. Wiseman brought that forward. They were not prompted on that. In terms of Mr. Mendes's suggestion, that was his view. Whether or not what that amounts to is...you know, it's his view that he put forward, so I won't comment on it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  These are in no particular order. Mr. Mendes had suggested that in a sort of cumulative effect, amendments to the Standing Orders and enacting legislation would in fact be tantamount to a binding constitutional convention, in his view. Mr. Russell suggested in his opinion that the most enduring manner to restrict the use of prorogation would be for all the parties in the House to enter into unanimous political agreement to abide by certain principles with respect to prorogation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was a very elaborate discussion. He went through the separation of powers that he saw in the Constitution, and among them was the prorogation power. He felt that this was part of the Constitution, the prorogation power, in that it enjoyed tacit constitutional protection as part of the Constitution, either in the preamble or he found it elsewhere.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  And the witness was not certain, by the way.