House of Commons Procedure and Practice

Second Edition, 2009

House of Commons Procedure and Practice - 19. Committees of the Whole House - Presiding Officers

Presiding Officers

Except in unusual circumstances, a Committee of the Whole is not chaired by the Speaker.^{^[53]} Instead, it is presided over by the Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees of the Whole. In his or her absence, the Chair is taken by the Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole, or the Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole. The Standing Orders also allow the Speaker to call upon any Member to preside over the proceedings in a Committee of the Whole, but this rarely occurs.^{^[54]}

Selection

At the beginning of each Parliament, the House selects from among its Members a Chair of Committees of the Whole who also acts as Deputy Speaker.^{^[55]} The Speaker of the House, after consultation with the leaders of each of the officially recognized parties, proposes the name of a Member to perform this duty.^{^[56]} The moment he or she does so, a motion to elect the Member is deemed presented to the House and the question is put immediately without debate or amendment.^{^[57]} The Member selected acts in that capacity until the end of the Parliament, unless a vacancy arises during the course of the Parliament, at which time a successor is chosen by the House as soon as possible.^{^[58]} A Deputy Chair and an Assistant Deputy Chair are also selected in the same manner as the Chair. However, their terms of office are effective only for the session in which they are chosen, and they are replaced as quickly as possible in the event their position becomes vacant.^{^[59]}

Authority

The Standing Orders empower the Chair of Committees of the Whole to maintain order and decorum in the Committee, just as the Speaker does in the House, and to decide questions of order.^{^[60]} Both the Deputy Chair and the Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole have the same powers as the Chair.^{^[61]}

However, disorder in a Committee of the Whole can only be censured by the House. Therefore, the Chair does not possess the authority to name a Member and order him or her to withdraw from the Chamber for the remainder of the day. That power can only be exercised by the Speaker in the House upon receiving a report from the Chair of Committees of the Whole.^{^[62]}

Appeals to the Chair’s Rulings

After the Chair of the Committee of the Whole has made a ruling, a Member may rise on a point of order and appeal the ruling to the Speaker.^{^[63]} Such an appeal is not subject to debate. The Chair of the Committee immediately leaves the Chair at the Table, the Mace is placed back on the Table, and the Speaker takes the Chair again. The Chair of the Committee stands in front of the Speaker’s Chair and reports the incident and the ruling which has been appealed to the Speaker.^{^[64]} The Speaker may hear from other Members on the matter before ruling.^{^[65]}

In the absence of the Speaker, the Chair of the Committee may take the Chair and decide the appeal to his or her own ruling. The Deputy or Acting Speaker hears the report from a Member he or she has designated.^{^[66]}

As with all Speaker’s rulings, after it has been delivered by the Speaker, there is no further appeal and no debate is allowed.^{^[67]} Only on rare occasions has a Chair’s ruling been overturned.^{^[68]} Since the Committee has not risen and reported progress, as soon as the appeal proceedings have been completed, the Speaker leaves the Chair, the Mace is removed from the Table and the Committee of the Whole resumes its deliberations.^{^[69]}

[53] Standing Order 53.1 permits the Speaker to preside over a Committee of the Whole when a take-note debate is held pursuant to this Standing Order. However, Speakers have seldom invoked this rule (Debates, January 28, 2002, p. 8359; April 10, 2006, p. 275). The House may also allow the Speaker to preside over a Committee of the Whole by special order. See, for example, Journals, September 27, 2001, p. 644. On occasion, the Speaker has presided when the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole to pay tribute to Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. See, for example, Debates, April 15, 2002, pp. 10393-4. In addition, the Speaker was authorized, by Special Order, to preside over a Committee of the Whole to allow guests of honour, representing the First Nations, Metis and Inuit, to make statements in response to the ministerial statement of apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools (Journals, June 11, 2008, p. 963).

[54] Standing Order 7(4). In practice, the person presiding over the House proceedings (other than the Speaker at regular times) will also take the Chair when the House goes into a Committee of the Whole. See, for example, Debates, May 1, 2006, pp. 734-5; November 1, 2006, pp. 4571-2.

[55] Standing Order 7(1). For further information on the selection of Presiding Officers, see Chapter 7, “The Speaker and Other Presiding Officers of the House”.

[56] Standing Order 7(2). The Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees of the Whole is required to possess the full and practical knowledge of the official language which is not that of the Speaker.

[57] To date, these motions have been adopted without a recorded division. See, for example, Journals, April 5, 2006, pp. 21-2.

[58] Standing Order 7(3). See, for example, Journals, May 15, 1990, pp. 1704‑5.

[59] Standing Order 8(1).

[60] Standing Order 12.

[61] Standing Order 8.

[62] Standing Order 11. For further information on naming a Member, see Chapter 13, “Rules of Order and Decorum”.

[63] Standing Order 12. Since 1965, appeals to the House of rulings of the Speaker and Committee of the Whole Chair’s have been disallowed. Members could now only appeal a Chair’s ruling to the Speaker. Not surprisingly, Members appealed rulings less and less after 1965, so that by the early 1970s the practice had all but disappeared. See, for example, Journals, June 11, 1965, p. 224. For examples of appeals in the House prior to 1965, see Debates, May 31, 1956, pp. 4662‑9; June 1, 1956, pp. 4703‑5, 4718‑38, 4743‑50. For examples since 1965, see Debates, December 21, 1988, p. 541; May 27, 2003, pp. 6590-3.

[64] For practical reasons, the report is presented orally to the Speaker. For examples of appeals of Chair’s rulings, see Journals, April 6, 1971, pp. 475‑6; December 21, 1988, pp. 67‑8; May 27, 2003, pp. 815-6.

[65] In 1971, for example, the Speaker permitted Members to present their arguments to him before he ruled on the matter (Debates, April 6, 1971, pp. 4969‑71).

[66] See, for example, Journals, June 25, 1965, pp. 303-4. In this instance, the Deputy Speaker confirmed his own ruling. In February 1971, when the Chairman’s ruling was appealed to the Speaker, the Chairman advised the Committee that the Speaker was not in the building and that he did not wish to hear the appeal to his own ruling. By unanimous consent, the Committee agreed to continue its consideration of the legislation before it until the Speaker was available to hear the appeal. The Speaker subsequently upheld the ruling of the Chairman (Debates, February 17, 1971, pp. 3495-6, 3498-501). In 2003, the Chair of the Committee of the Whole did not deem it appropriate to decide the appeal on his own ruling. The proceedings were suspended for approximately 20 minutes before the Speaker arrived in the House, took the Chair and heard the appeal. The Speaker ultimately upheld the ruling by the Chair of the Committee (Debates, May 27, 2003, pp. 6592-3).

[67] Standing Orders 10 and 12.

[68] When the Standing Orders allowed appeals to be decided by the House, rulings by Chairmen were overturned on at least three occasions (Journals, March 6, 1913, p. 323; March 22, 1948, pp. 275‑6; December 13, 1957, p. 270).

[69] See, for example, Debates, April 6, 1971, p. 4971; December 21, 1988, p. 541; May 27, 2003, pp. 6592-3.