Consideration of Bills in a Committee of the Whole

After a bill has been read a second time, the House may order it referred to a Committee of the Whole either pursuant to the Standing Orders,144 by unanimous consent145 or by special order.146

All appropriation or supply bills (bills authorizing the actual withdrawal of funds from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for government expenditures) are automatically referred to a Committee of the Whole for consideration.147 These bills are usually considered at the end of the sitting on the last allotted day in a supply period when little or no debating time remains. The Standing Orders provide for the Speaker to interrupt the proceedings at that time and put all questions necessary, without further debate, to dispose of all stages of any supply bills.148 Thus, the committee stage is generally very brief and the bills are reported back to the House, invariably without amendment, within a matter of minutes. On occasion, by special order, the House proceeds even more rapidly and deems the bills adopted at all stages.149

Often a Committee of the Whole will examine non-controversial bills or bills dealing with matters of political importance for which arrangements on the use of House time have been made. Also, the House has examined urgent legislation, such as legislation terminating strikes, by unanimous consent or by special order in a Committee of the Whole.150 These bills may be considered by unanimous consent of the House at two or more stages in one sitting.151

Rules of Debate and Proceedings

When the House resolves into a Committee of the Whole for the consideration of bills, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have unlimited speaking time.152 The Member who has the floor has no more than 20 minutes in total to make remarks, ask questions, and receive answers to his or her questions.153

A bill is considered in a Committee of the Whole in much the same way it would be if it were referred to a standing, special or legislative committee.154 Consideration of the preamble and title (as well as Clause 1 if it contains only the short title of the bill) are postponed.155 Each clause is a distinct question and is disposed of separately in numerical order. Traditionally, when Clause 1 (or Clause 2 if Clause 1 contains only the short title of the bill156) is called, the Committee holds a general debate, similar to that at second reading, covering the principles and details of the bill. After Clause 1 (or Clause 2, if applicable) is disposed of, debate must be strictly relevant to the clause under consideration.157 This tends to make debate on subsequent clauses shorter. Amendments and subamendments to a clause may be moved. If they are found procedurally acceptable by the Chair, they are debated and disposed of before the next clause is called.158 After a clause has been considered, the Chair asks if it shall carry.159 Once a clause has been disposed of, it may not be discussed again during consideration of another clause. New clauses, schedules, new schedules, Clause 1 (if it contains only the short title of the bill), the preamble and the title are the last items considered.160 Similar to proceedings in standing, special or legislative committees, consideration of particular clauses may be postponed or stood by decision of the Committee.161

When consideration of a bill in a Committee of the Whole is completed, the Chair requests leave to report the bill. Often leave is granted automatically, but a division may also take place on the motion.162 Once leave is granted, the Mace is placed back on the Table; the Speaker takes the Chair and the Chair of the Committee reports the bill, with or without amendment, to the House.163 The report is then received by the House and the Speaker immediately puts the question on the motion for the bill to be concurred in at report stage.164 No amendments or debate are allowed at this stage.165

Should the bill be concurred in at report stage, the third reading motion may be proposed in the same sitting.166 However, unless it is provided for by the Standing Orders (for example in the case of supply bills) or by special order, the third reading motion of a bill that has been read a second time that same sitting may be moved only with the unanimous consent of the House.167 With the consent of the House, the third reading motion may be proposed immediately, which is the usual practice,168 or later during the same sitting. Third reading may also take place at the next sitting of the House.169

During consideration of the motion for third reading, an amendment may not be proposed to recommit to a Committee of the Whole a bill that has been previously considered by a standing committee.170 Such an amendment to recommit the bill usually limits consideration in the Committee to certain clauses, or new proposed amendments.171 In some cases, no limitation is included.172 If agreed to, this motion becomes an instruction to the Committee.173

Time Allocation

The Standing Orders provide a mechanism, referred to as time allocation, for restricting the length of debate on bills.174 It allows the government party to negotiate with the opposition parties to establish, in advance, a timetable for the consideration of a public bill at one or more legislative stages, including debate in Committee of the Whole. In the absence of an agreement among the representatives of all parties or among a majority of the representatives of the parties, the government may also use time allocation to determine, with the agreement of the House, the period of time remaining for committee deliberations. The amount of time allocated may not, however, be less than one sitting day. In this particular case, the government must give prior notice orally at a previous sitting. Before the vote on the motion of time allocation, a 30-minute questions and answers period must also be held for the government to justify its use of this measure.175

Time allocation has rarely been imposed in a Committee of the Whole.176 Bills that are referred to it may deal with matters of political importance on which arrangements have been made on the use of House time; it is therefore not necessary to allocate time. In addition, the House often prefers to make special orders that enable it to move quickly to set specific time limits for the consideration of legislation in a Committee of the Whole.177 These special orders are generally negotiated between the parties before being agreed to by unanimous consent.

Motions of Instruction

Motions of instruction are derived from British practice which was developed in the second half of the 19th century and incorporated into Canadian practice, although they have seldom been used. Instructions to a Committee of the Whole dealing with legislation are not mandatory but permissive; that is, the Committee has the discretion to decide whether it will exercise the power given to it by the House to do something which it otherwise would have no authority to do.178 However, if the Committee itself wishes to extend its powers, it must request that the House give it an instruction to this effect.179 Today, given that the House usually refers a bill to a Committee of the Whole to expedite its passage, the House typically defines the guidelines under which the Committee will work by special order.180

In the event the House wishes to instruct a Committee of the Whole to do something, a motion of instruction may be moved without notice immediately after a bill has been read a second time and referred to a Committee of the Whole but before the House has resolved itself into the Committee.181 An instruction to a Committee of the Whole has also been moved as a substantive motion under the rubric “Motions” during Routine Proceedings when a bill was already before the Committee.182 A motion of instruction is debatable and amendable.183

Members have moved motions instructing a Committee of the Whole to divide a bill into several bills,184 to consolidate several bills into one bill,185 and to insert new clauses into a bill.186 A motion of instruction is inadmissible if it seeks to confer upon the Committee powers it already has, such as the authority to amend a bill.187 Any number of motions of instruction may be moved successively to a bill referred to a Committee of the Whole; however, each motion is a separate and independent motion.188 Once a motion of instruction is agreed to, it becomes an order of reference to the Committee.