Notices of Motions for the Production of Papers
Members may choose to give notice of a
motion requesting that certain papers or documents be compiled or produced by
the government and tabled in the
House. [68]
Notices of
Motions for the Production of Papers resemble written questions in that they are
requests for information from the government. All such motions are worded in the
form of either an Order of the House (“That an Order of the House do issue
…”) or an Address to the Crown, a formal message requesting the
production of documents in the Crown’s possession (“That a humble
Address be presented to His/Her Excellency praying that he/she will cause to be
laid before the House of Commons …”). Thus, a motion, if adopted,
becomes either an order that the government table certain documents in the House
or an Address to the Governor General requesting that certain papers be sent to
the House. An Order of the House is used for papers concerning matters directly
related to federal departments or the business of the House. An Address is
required for correspondence between federal and provincial governments, federal
and foreign governments, the federal government and any company, corporation or
individual, Orders in Council, and papers concerning royal commissions, the
administration of justice, the judicial conduct of judges or the exercise of
Crown prerogatives. It is the responsibility of the Speaker to ensure that the
motion proposed is appropriately worded so that it can achieve what it intends
to do. [69]
While a number of motions for the
production of papers have been transferred for debate in recent years, debate
has rarely been held on an item of this nature since
1986. [70]
When the
House does consider such motions, the debate is restricted to whether or not the
papers should be produced rather than the subject matter of the
papers. [71]
Notice
Members must give 48 hours’ written
notice of a motion for the production of papers, after which it is transferred
from the Notice Paper to the Order Paper where it appears under
the rubric “Notices of Motions for the Production of Papers” on the
following Wednesday, the only day of the week such notices of motions can be
called. [72]
Transferred for Debate
When a Notice of Motion for the Production
of Papers is called on a Wednesday following Routine Proceedings, it must be
either dealt with immediately, without debate or amendment, or transferred for
debate at the request of the sponsoring Member or a
Minister. [73]
(For
further details, see Chapter 10, “The Daily Program”.) Once
transferred for debate, the motion is placed on the Order Paper under the
heading entitled “Notices of Motions (Papers)” on the list of items
outside the order of precedence. It may be subject to debate at a subsequent
time if it is selected by the sponsoring Member following the draw for the order
of precedence.