Tag

Speaker

2 articles

LegislationJuly 4, 20267 min read
One Bill, Hundreds of Pages, Dozens of Laws, a Single Vote. Here's How Omnibus Bills Work — and the 2017 Rule That Lets the Speaker Split Them.
An omnibus bill is a single bill that seeks to amend, repeal, or enact several — often unrelated — measures at once, moving through every stage of Parliament as one package with one vote at each stage. Governments bundle for efficiency and for leverage: a package moves on one timetable, and MPs cannot support the parts they like while opposing the parts they don't. The most durable form is the budget implementation act — the twice-yearly bill that turns budget promises into law and routinely runs to hundreds of pages amending dozens of statutes. The 2012 budget bills (C-38 and C-45), each more than 400 pages and reaching deep into environmental assessment, fisheries, and navigable-waters law, made "omnibus" a household complaint. In June 2017 the House adopted Standing Order 69.1, which lets the Speaker divide the question at second and third reading where a bill has "no common element" connecting its parts — so MPs can vote separately on unrelated components. Two limits matter: the rule splits the votes, not the bill (it still goes to one committee as one bill), and it largely exempts budget implementation bills whose measures were announced in the budget — the very place the biggest bundles live. Every major party has criticized omnibus bills in opposition and used them in government; the durable question is not whether bundling happens, but how much scrutiny each measure inside the bundle actually gets.
LegislationJune 21, 20265 min read
The Speaker of the House: Elected by Secret Ballot, Sworn to Impartiality, and the Only MP Who Usually Doesn't Vote.
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the elected chamber, chosen at the start of each Parliament (and after a vacancy) by a secret-ballot, preferential vote of all Members of Parliament — a reform adopted in 1986 that took the choice out of the Prime Minister's hands. On taking the chair, the Speaker sets aside party affiliation and presides impartially: recognizing who has the floor, applying and interpreting the Standing Orders, ruling on points of order and questions of privilege, maintaining decorum, and naming (suspending) members who defy the chair. The Speaker also defends the collective rights of the House — its privileges — including against the government, as in the 2011 finding that the government was in contempt of Parliament for withholding documents, a ruling that flowed from the Speaker. By convention the Speaker does not participate in debate and does not vote, except to break a tie; when casting a tie-breaking vote, the Speaker follows established conventions (generally voting to continue debate or to preserve the status quo rather than to decide the matter substantively). The office also administers the House as an institution — its budget, staff, and security — through the Board of Internal Economy.

One Bill, Hundreds of Pages, Dozens of Laws, a Single Vote. Here's How Omnibus Bills Work — and the 2017 Rule That Lets the Speaker Split Them.

An omnibus bill is a single bill that seeks to amend, repeal, or enact several — often unrelated — measures at once, moving through every stage of Parliament as one package with one vote at each stage. Governments bundle for efficiency and for leverage: a package moves on one timetable, and MPs cannot support the parts they like while opposing the parts they don't. The most durable form is the budget implementation act — the twice-yearly bill that turns budget promises into law and routinely runs to hundreds of pages amending dozens of statutes. The 2012 budget bills (C-38 and C-45), each more than 400 pages and reaching deep into environmental assessment, fisheries, and navigable-waters law, made "omnibus" a household complaint. In June 2017 the House adopted Standing Order 69.1, which lets the Speaker divide the question at second and third reading where a bill has "no common element" connecting its parts — so MPs can vote separately on unrelated components. Two limits matter: the rule splits the votes, not the bill (it still goes to one committee as one bill), and it largely exempts budget implementation bills whose measures were announced in the budget — the very place the biggest bundles live. Every major party has criticized omnibus bills in opposition and used them in government; the durable question is not whether bundling happens, but how much scrutiny each measure inside the bundle actually gets.

The Speaker of the House: Elected by Secret Ballot, Sworn to Impartiality, and the Only MP Who Usually Doesn't Vote.

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the elected chamber, chosen at the start of each Parliament (and after a vacancy) by a secret-ballot, preferential vote of all Members of Parliament — a reform adopted in 1986 that took the choice out of the Prime Minister's hands. On taking the chair, the Speaker sets aside party affiliation and presides impartially: recognizing who has the floor, applying and interpreting the Standing Orders, ruling on points of order and questions of privilege, maintaining decorum, and naming (suspending) members who defy the chair. The Speaker also defends the collective rights of the House — its privileges — including against the government, as in the 2011 finding that the government was in contempt of Parliament for withholding documents, a ruling that flowed from the Speaker. By convention the Speaker does not participate in debate and does not vote, except to break a tie; when casting a tie-breaking vote, the Speaker follows established conventions (generally voting to continue debate or to preserve the status quo rather than to decide the matter substantively). The office also administers the House as an institution — its budget, staff, and security — through the Board of Internal Economy.