For immediate release

NEWS RELEASE

COMMONS MODERNIZATION COMMITTEE TO VISIT PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA

Ottawa, February 28, 2003 - The House of Commons Special Committee on Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures of the House of Commons continues its study of recent innovations and developments in parliamentary procedure and practice. Members of the Special Committee will be travelling to Canberra (Australia) from March 1-7, 2003 to meet with their counterparts from the Parliament of Australia to discuss their respective practices and new approaches to changing needs of legislatures.  There is special interest in the use of Main Committee, a forum first developed by the House of Representatives and later adapted by the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, as a kind of parallel Chamber that is useful in handling the ever-growing workloads and consequent time pressures of the House itself.

The delegation will be led by the Vice-Chair of the Committee, the Honourable Don Boudria (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell), Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. The other delegates are Mrs Marlene Catterall (Ottawa West-Nepean), Chief Government Whip; Mr Chuck Strahl (Fraser Valley) from the Canadian Alliance; Mrs Monique Guay (Laurentides), Chair of the Bloc Québecois Caucus; Ms Libby Davies (Vancouver East), New Democratic Party House Leader and Mr Loyola Hearn (St-John’s West), Progressive Conservative Party House Leader.

The Special Committee was created by Order of Reference of the House of Commons on November 28, 2002. 

For further information, please contact:

Special Committee on Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures

of the House of Commons (613) 995-5990.