My understanding of the private bill
procedure is that it was established to protect the public against the
uncontrolled granting of special powers to private interests. I believe that
there is no quarrel about this interpretation.
Speaker Lucien Lamoureux
(Debates, February 22, 1971, p. 3628)
T
he distinction between public and private
legislation has been inherited from British
practice. [1]
Private
bills differ from public bills by their intent, content and method of passage.
By definition, the purpose or intent of a private bill is to confer special
powers or benefits upon one or more persons or body of persons; or to exclude
one or more persons or body of persons from the general application of the law.
A public bill may be broadly described as a bill which deals with a matter of
public policy for the benefit of the community at large and is introduced
directly by a Member of the House. On the other hand, a private bill relates
directly to the affairs of an individual or group of individuals, including a
corporation, named in the bill; the bill seeks something which cannot be
obtained by means of the general law and is founded on a petition from an
individual or group of
individuals. [2]
Private bills must not be confused with
private Members’ bills. Although private bills are sponsored by private
Members, the term “private Member’s bill” refers to public
bills dealing with a matter of public policy introduced by Members who are not
Ministers.
Private bills are subject to special rules
in both Houses of Parliament. Since private bills ask Parliament to adjudicate
upon the interests of private parties and to be watchful over the interests of
the public, they are said to involve Parliament in both a judicial capacity and
a legislative
capacity. [3]
Private
bills can originate in either the House of Commons or the Senate, although most
private bills originate in the Senate where the fees and charges imposed on the
promoter are less. [4]
Private bills must pass through the basic procedural stages common to all
legislation; they must also meet certain parliamentary requirements which
distinguish them procedurally from all other types of bills.
Private bill procedure is unique in its
origins, forms and principles and has changed very little since 1867. While they
are now relatively rare, private bills once constituted a large part of the
legislative business of the House. In the early years of Confederation, the
House dealt with a large volume of private legislation to establish companies to
build and operate railways and to incorporate interprovincial companies since no
other legal authority allowed such corporations to be formed. In addition,
private bills requesting the dissolution of marriages occupied much of the
House’s time because Parliament had been granted the exclusive
jurisdiction to legislate with respect to marriage and divorce.
Today, private legislation accounts for
only a minuscule percentage of House
business. [5]
Most
private bills now deal with the incorporation of, or amendments to the acts of
incorporation of, religious, charitable and other organizations and of
insurance, trust and loan
companies. [6]
In recent
years, private legislation has been used for the amalgamation of insurance
companies and the revival of small business corporations which have previously
been dissolved. [7]
Although the reasons for this decrease in the passage of private bills vary, it
is to a large degree due to changes to the general law, such as the
Dissolution and Annulment of Marriages Act in
1963, [8]
and the
Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Act in
1990, [9]
and
administrative mechanisms found in present acts such as the Canada Business
Corporations
Act, [10]
the
Canada Corporations
Act [11]
and the Bank Act. [12]
This chapter explains in general terms the
kinds of bills classed as private, describes the principles of private bill
procedure and how they are applied, and gives an overview of the particularities
of the legislative process for such bills in the House of
Commons.