House of Commons Procedure and Practice

Each type of committee has its own lifespan. Standing and standing joint committees exist for the length of the parliamentary session, while legislative and special committees cease to exist in the course of a session once they complete the task that the House has entrusted to them. However, two events arising from the parliamentary cycle can interrupt the activities of parliamentary committees: the prorogation and the dissolution of Parliament.

   Effect of Prorogation and Dissolution on Committees

Prorogation occurs when the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister, issues a proclamation putting an end to a parliamentary session. Dissolution occurs when the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister, issues a proclamation that he or she is putting an end to the current Parliament, which triggers a general election.[120]

In either case, Parliament ceases to sit until the date set for the opening of the next session. Members are thus released from their parliamentary functions. With certain exceptions,[121] uncompleted business from the previous session simply lapses.

Because committees are creations of the House of Commons and have no independent existence, they are directly affected by these parliamentary events. In practice, as soon as Parliament is either prorogued or dissolved, parliamentary committees (with certain exceptions[122]) lose their orders of reference, mandates, powers and members. Quite simply, they cease to exist. As a result, they can neither sit nor report to the House.

Future meetings that have been announced are cancelled. Studies and other activities undertaken by a committee or entrusted to it by the House—whether the consideration of a bill or estimates or the review of a government appointment—are halted. Committee orders, if any, for the appearance of witnesses or the production of papers become null and void. Motions before a committee on which debate has been adjourned lapse, as do all notices of motion received. Draft reports that have not been presented to the House are left in suspense. The only aspect of a committee’s work that survives prorogation is a request for a government response to a report already presented to the House by that committee.[123]

All budgets required for committee operations[124] are frozen once all financial obligations have been paid, and no new financial obligations may be undertaken. Service contracts with non-parliamentary personnel expire automatically, if necessary, five calendar days after prorogation or dissolution.[125]

Committee clerks, who are the administrative and procedural officers of the committees, prepare their committees’ archives for the parliamentary session that has just ended, incorporating into them such items as minutes of proceedings, correspondence and briefs received.

   Resuming Proceedings in a New Session

Certain specific conditions must be met to continue with a study begun during a previous session or parliament. First, the committee concerned must be re-established. In the case of standing and standing joint committees, this poses no difficulty because their existence is automatically provided for under the Standing Orders. In the case of special[126] and legislative[127] committees, however, the House (with the Senate in the case of a special joint committee) must agree to re‑create them. The same applies to subcommittees: they must be re-established by the House or the main committee concerned.[128] Finally, committees must be constituted, that is, they must be assigned members and a Chair must be chosen.

Standing and standing joint committees that wish to resume a study they initiated themselves can do so by simply adopting a motion to this effect.[129] If the study originally arose from a matter referred to the committee by the House (e.g. a bill, estimates, an appointment), the committee will normally have to wait for the matter to be referred to it again. A legislative committee resumes consideration of a bill when the bill is referred to it once again. In the case of special joint committees and subcommittees, their studies are normally reinstated de facto in the motion that reconstitutes them.[130]

If occasion arises and they consider it appropriate, committees that have the power to do so may re-adopt orders for the appearance of witnesses or the production of papers, in order to reactivate those orders. It is quite common for the House or a committee to adopt an order stating that evidence heard and papers received in a preceding parliamentary session be taken into consideration in the new session.[131] This is normally done in order to complete studies that have not yet been reported on to the House.

During a new parliamentary session, committees can review draft substantive reports left in suspense at the end of the previous session. Some will decide to readopt substantive reports or portions of substantive reports that they presented to the House in a previous session.[132] This applies primarily in the case of standing committees that have been prevented by dissolution from obtaining the government response they had requested to their reports.