The Supply procedures established in 1867
remained basically unchanged for the first hundred years following
Confederation. Deriving from a long-standing rule of the British House of
Commons, [93]
the
Business of Supply was considered in a Committee of the Whole House, called the
Committee of Supply. [94]
From Confederation to 1968
Prior to 1968, the Supply proceedings
consisted of the process of entering into Committee of Supply and the
study of the annual Estimates or government spending proposals in
Committee of Supply. Before the Committee of Supply could begin its work, the
Finance Minister had to table the Estimates along with the message from the
Governor General signifying the recommendation of the
Crown. [95]
The
Minister then moved that the message and recommendation, together with the
Estimates, be referred to the Committee of
Supply. [96]
When the Order of the Day was read for the
House to resolve itself into the Committee of
Supply, [97]
the
motion, “That the Speaker do now leave the Chair” was proposed to
the House. [98]
This
initiated the first phase of the Supply proceedings; it was an opportunity for
Members to debate and, if they chose, amend the motion that the Speaker leave
the Chair. The rules pertaining to relevance were relaxed and Members used
amendments to the motion as the mechanism to raise their issues and debate them
in the House. In addition, the Opposition could use the threat of delaying
Supply to obtain concessions from the Executive. The practice of allowing every
description of amendment to be
moved, [99]
coupled
with great latitude permitted in the debate and the lack of time limits,
reflected the ancient tenet of parliamentary government which held that the
Crown should respond to the grievances of the people before the people granted
Supply. [100]
Once having agreed to the motion for the
Speaker to leave the Chair, the House was then sitting as the Committee of
Supply. Each Estimate was considered as a separate resolution or motion,
“that a certain sum be granted to Her Majesty for …” Amendments to
the motion were permitted and no time limits were placed on the debate. If
decided in the affirmative, the resolutions were reported to the House for its
concurrence. This was accomplished by “reading” the resolution
twice. The first reading was purely formal; however, the motion for second
reading was debatable and amendable. Reports from the Committee of Supply were
usually not received or taken up by the House on the same day they were
reported, but were ordered to be received at a subsequent sitting of the House.
Upon reporting, the Committee requested leave “to sit again”,
without which permission the Committee of Supply, as an entity, would have
ceased to exist. [101]
When the Order of the Day was read to
report the resolutions approved in Committee, a formal motion for their first
reading was proposed. The motion was never debated or amended. If the House
agreed, each resolution was then read separately a second time, after which the
Speaker put the question for concurrence. Both the debate and any amendment had
to be relevant to the proposed
resolution. [102]
When all the Estimates had passed through
the Committee of Supply, the Finance Minister would move a motion for the House
to resolve into the Committee of Ways and Means to consider resolutions to
authorize the necessary withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue
Fund. [103]
Again,
each sum was proposed as a separate resolution, considered and, if agreed to,
reported to the House. Once the resolutions had been read a second time, they
formed the basis for the Appropriation or Supply Bill, which set aside (or
appropriated) from the Consolidated Revenue Fund the amounts required to fund
the programs and activities approved in the Estimates. Supply Bills were often
introduced and passed through two or more legislative stages in a single
day. [104]
Once it had
been passed by the House, the Supply Bill was sent to the Senate where it was
given three readings and passed before being returned to the
House.
The debate on the motion “That the
Speaker do now leave the Chair” often resulted in Supply being considered
very late in the session, and often late at night. Consequently, by the time the
Estimates were actually discussed in the Committee, they tended to be given
relatively short examination, provoking frequent criticism of the lack of
effective parliamentary oversight of government
expenditure. [105]
In 1913, the Standing Orders of the House
were modified: henceforth, when the order for the House to go into the Committee
of Supply was called on Thursday and Friday, the motion “That the Speaker
do now leave the Chair” would be deemed adopted without question
put. [106]
This change
represented the first encroachment on the Members’ previously unfettered
right to air grievances before considering the government’s financial
requirements. The effect of the adoption of the change was that from 1913 to
1955, only 132 amendments to the motion were moved, while in the period 1867 to
1913, 271 amendments had been moved. By guaranteeing the government at least two
days a week on which its financial requirements could be taken up by the House,
the new rule introduced the first real constraint on the opposition’s
capacity to delay Supply.
There were no further modifications until
1927 [107]
when the
House agreed to allow a sub-amendment to the motion for the Speaker to leave the
Chair to go into the Committee of Supply or the Committee of Ways and Means when
proposed on a day other than a Thursday or
Friday. [108]
Opinion soon began to differ as to whether
Estimates should continue to be considered in a Committee of the Whole or be
referred to a standing
committee. [109]
In
1955, the House agreed to establish a Special Committee on
Estimates. [110]
Initially, the Committee lacked the authority to send for persons, papers and
records; however, changes to the Standing Orders in 1958 gave the committee the
necessary powers. [111]
Additional changes, approved provisionally
in 1967, made it possible for standing committees to examine the Estimates and
limited to four the number of occasions in any session on which the House could
debate the motion to go into the Committee of Supply or the Committee of Ways
and Means. [112]
A
maximum of 30 days in each session was allocated for the consideration of the
Business of Supply. [113]
Supply Proceedings Since 1968
In 1968, changes were recommended by the
Special Committee on Procedure and Organization. The Committee had described
Supply procedures as "time-consuming, repetitive and archaic", claiming they did
not permit an effective scrutiny of the Estimates, did not provide the House
with the means of organizing meaningful debate on pre-arranged subjects, had
failed to preserve effective parliamentary control over expenditures and had
failed to guarantee an expeditious decision on appropriation bills. The
Committee found that the traditional Supply procedures were irrelevant to the
realities of government in the present
day. [114]
The House
agreed to alter substantially its financial
procedures. [115]
The
Committee of Supply was abolished, along with the Committee of Ways and Means.
All Estimates would be referred now to standing committees before they were
taken up in the House. Under the revised rules, the Main Estimates would be
tabled and referred on or before March 1 of each year. Committees were required
to report back the Estimates, or would be deemed to have reported them back, no
later than May 31. [116]
The House agreed to establish, at the
beginning of each session, a continuing order for the consideration of Supply on
the House agenda under Government
Business. [117]
Unlike
the order for the House to go into the Committee of Supply, which lapsed once
the committee had reported the Estimates back to the House, the continuing order
remains on the agenda as an item of government business and may be taken up at
any time at the government’s discretion.
The new rules divided the parliamentary
calendar into three periods, during which 25 days would be allotted to the
Business of Supply. Five allotted days were set aside in the Supply period
ending December 10, seven days in the period ending March 26 and an additional
thirteen days in the period ending June 30. Opposition or Supply motions could
be moved only by Members in opposition to the government and might be related to
any matter within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of
Canada. [118]
In addition, the new rules stipulated that
in any period, the opposition could ask that up to two of its allotted day
motions be brought to a vote and that these could be designated as votes of
non-confidence in the government. Since the requirement that the Executive
retain the confidence of the House is a matter of convention, many questioned
why votable opposition motions should be termed “no-confidence”
motions. [119]
In
March 1975, the Standing Orders were provisionally modified so that votes on
opposition supply motions would no longer, ipso facto, be considered an
expression of confidence in the
government. [120]
The
provisional rules lapsed at the beginning of the following Session and the term
“no-confidence” found its way back into the 1977 version of the
Standing Orders. Amendments to the Standing Orders in June 1985 again removed
the non-confidence provision from the rules on opposition
motions. [121]
In 1986, provision was made for the Leader
of the Opposition to extend the committee consideration of the Main Estimates of
one department or agency beyond the May 31 deadline, for a period not exceeding
10 further sitting
days. [122]
In
addition, the new rules set aside the last allotted day in the Supply period
ending June 30 to debate the motion to concur in the Main Estimates, instead of
the usual opposition motion, and extended the sitting hours on that day until
10:00 p.m. In 1991, the end date for that period was changed to June 23 and, as
a result of a reduction of the number of sittings days in the year, the total
number of allotted days over a year was reduced from 25 to
20. [123]
Provision
was also made to increase or decrease the number of allotted days in a Supply
period in relation to the total number of sitting days in the
period, [124]
and to
limit the number of allotted days falling on Wednesday and
Friday. [125]
Finally,
in 1998, the total number of allotted days was increased to 21, and the last
allotted day in June again provided for the consideration of an opposition
motion. [126]
However,
the consideration of the opposition motion on this last allotted day is not to
go beyond 6:30 p.m. and is to be followed with the necessary motions to concur
in the Main Estimates.
Allotted Days
The setting aside of a specified number of
sitting days on which the opposition chooses the subject of debate derives from
the tradition which holds that Parliament does not grant Supply until the
opposition has had an opportunity to demonstrate why it should be refused. Of
the twenty-one days allocated in each annual Supply cycle for the House to
consider the Business of Supply, seven days are allotted during the period
ending December 10, seven during the period ending March 26 and seven during the
period ending June 23. Of these twenty-one days, no more than four may fall on a
Wednesday and no more than four on a Friday (the shortest sitting days of the
week). [134]
The
twenty-one days are designated as “allotted days”. On each of these
days, the House will debate an opposition
motion. [135]
The normal Supply cycle can be disrupted by
an extended adjournment, a prorogation or a dissolution. In these cases, the
number of opposition days in each Supply period may be increased or
decreased. If, for any reason, the number of sitting days
in any Supply period is fewer than the number prescribed under the parliamentary
calendar, the number of allotted days in that period will be reduced by an
amount proportional to the number of sitting days the House stood adjourned. The
Speaker will determine and announce to the House the reduction in the number of
allotted days for that
period. [136]
Conversely, should the House sit more than the prescribed number of sitting
days, the total number of allotted days will be increased by one day for every
five additional days the House
sits. [137]
The House
may also decide that any unused days from the six days allotted to the debate on
the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, or from the four days
allotted to the Budget Debate, be added to the number of allotted days in the
Supply period in which they would have been taken
up. [138]
If, in the Supply period ending June 23,
concurrence is sought in Supplementary Estimates for the previous fiscal year, a
further three sitting days will be allocated in that period for the
consideration of a motion to concur in those Estimates and for the passage at
all stages of the related supply
bill. [139]
On
occasion, changes have been made, with the consent of the House, to the length
of a Supply period or to the number of allotted days. For example, the House has
agreed to extend the length of a Supply
period; [140]
to add
Supply days; [141]
and
to transfer unused Supply days from one period to the
next. [142]
The House
has also agreed that an allotted day in one Supply period be deemed disposed of
and one additional allotted day be designated in the subsequent Supply
period. [143]
Designating an Allotted Day
The government designates the days allotted
to the consideration of the Business of Supply. The established practice is for
a Minister of the Crown, usually the Government House Leader, to rise in the
House and designate the following day or a subsequent day as an allotted
day; [144]
allotted
days may also be designated during the “Thursday Statement” on the
House business for the following
week. [145]
However,
the date so designated is not binding on the government and may, like the
scheduling of any other Government Order, be revised at any
time. [146]
If the
government fails to designate the prescribed number of allotted days, the
remaining days in that period will be designated by
default. [147]
When
the sitting on a day designated as an allotted day ends before the House has
reached Orders of the Day, the allotted day has not commenced, and therefore the
sitting does not count as one of the days designated for the consideration of an
opposition
motion. [148]
On the
other hand, once the order for Supply has been called, an allotted day is deemed
completed if, subsequently, the proceedings are
superseded. [149]
Opposition Motions
Opposition motions have precedence over all
government Supply motions on allotted
days. [150]
However,
on the last allotted day for the period ending June 23, at not later than 6:30
p.m., the Speaker interrupts the proceedings on the opposition motion and puts,
without further debate or amendment, every question necessary to dispose of the
motion. Any recorded division requested is deferred to the end of the Supply
proceedings on that day, but not later than 10:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the House
proceeds to consider a motion or motions to concur in the Main
Estimates. [151]
Members in opposition to the government may
propose motions for debate on any matter falling within the jurisdiction of the
Parliament of Canada, as well as on committee reports concerning
Estimates. [152]
The
Standing Orders give Members a very wide scope in proposing opposition motions
on Supply days and, unless the motion is clearly and undoubtedly irregular
(e.g., where the procedural aspect is not open to reasonable argument), the
Chair does not intervene. [153]
Notice
Before an opposition motion can be taken up
on an allotted day, a 24-hour written notice of the motion must be
given. [154]
A notice
which is not filed by 6:00 p.m. (or 2:00 p.m. on a Friday) on the day before a
designated allotted day will not appear on the Order Paper the following
day. [155]
A Member
may put an opposition motion on notice even though an allotted day has not yet
been designated. [156]
However, a decision by the government not to proceed with a designated allotted
day is not in itself a reason for the Chair to remove a notice of an opposition
motion from the Notice
Paper. [157]
It
can remain on the Notice Paper until it is proceeded with later or
withdrawn by the sponsor. Only the sponsor can have it removed, and the consent
of the House to do so is not
required. [158]
Speaker’s Power to Select
The Standing Orders are silent on the
method of apportioning allotted days between the parties, when two or more
recognized parties form the opposition. Although the government designates which
days shall be used for the Business of Supply, the opposition parties decide
among themselves which party will sponsor the motion and whether or not, subject
to the provisions of the Standing Orders, that motion will be brought to a vote.
The distribution has reflected the proportion of seats each recognized party
occupies in the Chamber. It is not the purview of the Official Opposition to
determine unilaterally who can propose a motion on an allotted
day. [159]
Notices of
more than one motion may be given by one or several opposition
parties. [160]
Where
notice of two or more opposition motions appears on the Order Paper for
consideration on an allotted day and there is no agreement among the opposition
parties as to which shall be taken up, the Speaker must decide which motion
shall be given
precedence. [161]
Generally, in making their decision, Speakers will take into consideration the
following: representation of the parties in the House; the distribution of
sponsorship to date; fair play towards small parties; the date of notice; the
sponsor of the motion; the subject matter; whether or not the motion is votable;
and what has happened, by agreement among the parties, in the immediate past
Supply periods. [162]
Votable Motions
For each annual Supply cycle, not more than
14 opposition motions considered on allotted days may be brought to a
vote. [163]
For the
purpose of calculating votable motions, the period ending December 10 is deemed
to be the first period in the Supply
cycle. [164]
The
allocation of the 14 votable motions is worked out in an informal agreement
among the opposition
parties. [165]
However, except in a situation where the limit of allowable votable motions in a
Supply period or in any year has been reached, it is not within the competence
of the Chair to rule whether or not a particular motion should be
votable. [166]
Although it happens infrequently, some opposition motions on allotted days have
been agreed to by the
House. [167]
Proceedings on an Opposition Motion
Proceedings on non-votable opposition
motions expire at the conclusion of the debate or at the expiry of the time
provided for Government
Orders. [168]
However,
a motion can be moved to extend the sitting beyond the hour of daily
adjournment. [169]
In
the case of votable motions, the Speaker will interrupt the debate 15 minutes
before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders and proceed to put,
without further debate or amendment, every question necessary to dispose of the
motion. [170]
When a
recorded division on a votable opposition motion is demanded on a Friday, the
division is automatically deferred until the ordinary hour of daily adjournment
on the next sitting day; however, a recorded division demanded on the last
allotted day of a Supply period may not be
deferred. [171]
The proceedings on a votable opposition
motion may continue for more than one allotted
day; [172]
usually,
such proceedings have taken place over two consecutive sitting days where both
have been designated together as allotted
days. [173]
The
duration of such proceedings must be stated in the notice respecting the day or
days set aside. [174]
The mover of the motion, who is a Member of
the opposition, speaks first on an opposition day. No Member may speak for more
than twenty minutes; a ten-minute period is also provided for questions and
comments. [175]
It is
often the case that two Members of the same party will agree to share the twenty
minutes, with each speaker receiving five minutes for questions and
comments. [176]
On
allotted days, the party of the opposition Member sponsoring the motion may be
recognized more frequently on debate than otherwise might be warranted, given
their relative numbers in the House.
Only one amendment and one sub-amendment
are permitted to opposition motions considered on an allotted
day. [177]
Amendments
which have the effect of providing the basis for an entirely different debate
are not in
order. [178]
When a
party has been allocated an allotted day and a subject has been proposed for
debate by way of an opposition motion, the day should not be taken away by way
of an amendment. [179]
The House has consented, despite the rules, to allow amendments which had been
ruled inadmissible by the
Chair. [180]
Main Estimates
The Main Estimates provide a breakdown, by
department and agency, of planned government spending for the coming fiscal
year. The Estimates are expressed as a series of “Votes”, or
resolutions, which summarize the estimated financial requirements in a
particular expenditure category, such as operations, capital or
grants. [181]
The
Votes are expressed in dollar amounts, the total of which, once agreed to,
should satisfy all the budgetary requirements of a department or agency in that
category, with the exception of any expenditures provided for under other
statutory authority. Each budgetary item, or Vote, has two essential components:
an amount of money and a destination (a description of what the money will be
used for). Should the government wish to change the approved amount or
destination of a Vote, it must do so either by way of a
“supplementary” Estimate or by way of new or amending
legislation.
The Main Estimates are presented in two
parts. Part I, the Government Expenditure Plan, gives an overview of the
government’s projected total expenditures for the new fiscal year. Part II
contains the Main Estimates, which summarize the budgetary and statutory
expenditures for all government ministries and agencies for the same period. It
also contains an introductory section, which explains the different kinds of
Votes [182]
and other
elements making up the Estimates, as well as any changes to the content with
respect to that found in previous fiscal years. Part II outlines spending
according to departments, agencies and programs and contains the proposed
wording of the conditions governing spending which Parliament will be asked to
approve. [183]
The
information provided in Part II directly supports the Schedule of the
Appropriation Act. Statutory items are expenditures authorized under
separate legislation and, because already approved by the statute, they do not
require further approval by Parliament. They are identified in the Estimates
with an “S” and are included for information purposes
only. [184]
Part I is
now combined with Part II in the volume known historically as the “Blue
Book”. [185]
The form and content of the Main Estimates
have been modified on only four occasions since Confederation: in 1938, 1970,
1981 and, most recently, in
1997. [186]
In each
instance, the impetus behind the reforms was a desire to improve the quality and
utility of the information provided to Members of Parliament. In 1938, the
Minister of Finance included in the Estimates, for the first time, a breakdown
of departmental operating costs by
function. [187]
Still
greater precision was introduced in 1970, when departmental expenditures were
linked to programs and activities. An explanatory forward clarifying the
technical terms used was added and, for the first time, the Blue Book was
printed in bilingual
format. [188]
As the scope of the federal government
widened and government operations grew increasingly complex, compressing all
government expenditure information into a single document became more and more
impractical. In 1981, following a comprehensive review of financial management
and accountability in the federal government, two new documents were introduced.
The old Blue Book became known as Part II, Estimates, and a new Part I
and Part III were
added. [189]
Part I
provided an overview of federal spending, along with information about planned
future activities which could not be included along with the annual
appropriations and statutory spending set down in the Blue Book. Part II
continued to list in detail the resources that individual departments and
agencies required for the upcoming year. Finally, Part III, the Departmental
Expenditure Plan, was a collection of separate books each providing
additional details about the programs and activities of a single department or
agency. The first Part IIIs were tabled with the 1982-83 Main
Estimates. [190]
In Chapter 6 of the 1992 Annual Report
to Parliament, the Auditor General addressed the issue of departmental
reporting. It was noted that much of the government’s financial activity
was not expressed as spending and, for this reason, not captured in the
information Members of Parliament used when considering and approving
Supply. [191]
In the
view of the Auditor General, information to Parliament should include a
description of the organization’s mission, its major lines of business,
the way it is structured, the instruments it uses, its strategic targets and
objectives for achieving the mission, as well as performance reports on the
extent to which these objectives have been
met. [192]
In 1997,
the House decided to undertake a pilot project to split the Part III
departmental expenditure plans into the Report on Plans and Priorities and the Performance Report. Beginning in fiscal year 1997-98, the
Part IIIs were replaced by two documents, the Report on Plans and
Priorities to be tabled on or before March 31 and the Performance
Report to be tabled in the
fall. [193]
The Report on Plans and Priorities describes a department’s (or agency’s) mandate, mission and
strategic objectives, and provides detailed information about the business line
structure, expected results and performance-measurement
strategy. [194]
The
reports are tabled in Parliament by the President of the Treasury Board on
behalf of the responsible
Minister. [195]
Performance Reports are individual departmental and agency accounts of
achievements, measured against planned performance expectations as set out in
their Report on Plans and
Priorities. [196]
These too are tabled by the President of the Treasury Board on the
Ministers’ behalf and referred to the appropriate standing
committee. [197]
With
regard to the Administration of the House of Commons, the annual Report on
Plans and Priorities, as well as the annual Performance Report, are
tabled in the House by the
Speaker. [198]
The Main Estimates for an incoming fiscal
year must be referred to the standing committees on or before March 1 of the
expiring fiscal year. The Estimates are presented by a Minister of the Crown,
normally the President of the Treasury Board, and are accompanied by a
recommendation from the Governor General, which the Speaker reads aloud in the
House. [199]
The Main
Estimates are typically referred to standing committees as soon as they are
tabled. [200]
Any
Minister may move a motion during Routine Proceedings that an item or items in
the Main Estimates be referred to any standing committee or committees; the
motion is decided without
debate. [201]
Interim Supply
Since the fiscal year begins on April 1 and
the normal Supply cycle only provides for the House to decide on Main Estimates
in June, the government would appear to be without funds for the interim three
months. For this reason, the House authorizes an advance on the funds requested
in the Main Estimates to cover the needs of the public service from the start of
the new fiscal year to the date on which the Appropriation Act based on the Main
Estimates of that year is passed. This is known as “Interim
Supply”, [202]
a
spending authority made available to the government pending approval of the Main
Estimates.
The government gives notice of a motion
setting out in detail the sums of money it will require, expressed in twelfths
of the amounts to be voted in the Main
Estimates. [203]
Most
are three-twelfths of the total amount, corresponding to the three-month hiatus
between the beginning of the new fiscal year and the final passage of the Main
Estimates, but the government may request
more. [204]
The motion
for Interim Supply is considered on the last allotted day of the period ending
March 26. Concurrence in the motion is followed by the consideration and passage
at all stages of an appropriation bill based on Interim Supply and authorizing
the prescribed withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue
Fund. [205]
The
granting of Interim Supply does not necessarily constitute immediate House
approval for the programs to which it applies in the Main
Estimates.
Supplementary Estimates
Should the amounts voted under the Main
Estimates prove insufficient, or should new funding or a reallocation of funds
between Votes or programs be required during a fiscal year, the government may
ask Parliament to approve additional expenditures set out in Supplementary
Estimates. The government may introduce as many sets of Supplementary Estimates
in a year as it deems necessary, although the practice has been to limit such
requests to two or three.
The Supplementary Estimates are tabled as a
document in the same form as Part II of the Main Estimates. However, instead of
being expressed as summary Votes (i.e., where a Vote summarizes all the
anticipated disbursements in a particular expenditure category), each
Supplementary Estimate or Vote relates to a specific program or financial
transaction. The information included in the Supplementary Estimates will become
a Schedule in the subsequent Appropriation Act authorizing the prescribed
withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
As with the Main Estimates, each set of
Supplementary Estimates is presented normally by the President of the Treasury
Board and is accompanied by a recommendation from the Governor General, which
the Speaker reads aloud in the
House. [206]
Supplementary Estimates are referred to the relevant standing committees
immediately after their tabling in the
House. [207]
The
reference motion is moved by a Minister of the Crown during Routine Proceedings
and is decided without
debate. [208]
The
Supplementary Estimates must be reported back, or are deemed to have been
reported back, not later than three sitting days before the last allotted day,
or the last sitting day, of the Supply period in which they were
tabled. [209]
Final Supplementary Estimates
Where concurrence in final Supplementary
Estimates cannot be obtained before March 31 of the fiscal year to which they
relate, the Standing Orders provide for approval to be sought in the next Supply
period, which is the first Supply period of the subsequent fiscal year. In such
cases, three days will be added to the Supply period ending not later than June
23 to consider the motion that the House concur in those final Estimates for the
previous fiscal year and to pass at all stages any bill based
thereon. [210]
Dollar Items
Supplementary Estimates often include what
are known as “one dollar items”, which seek an alteration in the
existing allocation of funds as authorized in the Main Estimates. The purpose of
a dollar item is not to seek new or additional money, but rather to spend money
already authorized for a different purpose. Since “estimates” are
budgetary items, they must have a dollar value. However, because no new funds
are requested, the “one dollar” is merely a symbolic amount. Dollar
items may be used to transfer funds from one program to
another; [211]
to write-off debts; [212]
to adjust loan
guarantees; [213]
to authorize
grants; [214]
or to amend previous appropriation
acts. [215]
The inclusion of one dollar items in the
Estimates also gave rise to the issue of using Estimates to
“legislate” (i.e., Estimates going beyond simply appropriating funds
and attempting to obtain new legislative authority which would otherwise require
separate enabling legislation through the regular legislative process, outside
the Supply procedure). [216]
Prior to 1968, Supply procedures afforded
ample opportunity for the House to debate individual items in the Estimates.
Those of a legislative nature (virtually always “one dollar items”)
were regularly included in Appropriation
Acts. [217]
However,
this practice was not accepted readily by the House and Members did question the
regularity of these
items. [218]
The 1968
changes to the rules governing Supply, which provided for the abolition of the
Committee of Supply and the reference of Estimates to standing committees for
detailed study, had the effect of reducing significantly the time allocated for
the House to consider the Supplementary Estimates (where most dollar items are
found). Moreover, the Supplementary Estimates are often tabled fairly late in
the Supply period allowing relatively little time for committee consideration.
As a result, soon after the 1968 changes, the Speaker was called on increasingly
to decide questions concerning the admissibility of dollar
items. [219]
The rulings by Speakers of the House have clarified what is, and what is not,
procedurally acceptable in regard to dollar items.
Speakers have often indicated that Members
should take the initiative in bringing to the attention of the Chair any
procedural irregularities with regard to the
Estimates. [220]
They have also repeatedly asked that Members raise questions about the procedural
acceptability of Estimates as early as possible so that the Chair has time to
give “intelligent” consideration to these
questions. [221]
The Chair has maintained that Estimates
with a direct and specific legislative intent (those clearly intended to amend
existing legislation) should come to the House by way of an amending
bill. [222]
Speaker
Jerome stated in a ruling: “ … it is my view that the government receives
from Parliament the authority to act through the passage of legislation and
receives the money to finance such authorized action through the passage by
Parliament of an appropriation act. A supply item in my opinion ought not,
therefore, to be used to obtain authority which is the proper subject of
legislation.” [223]
He also said in a further ruling: “ … supply ought to be confined
strictly to the process for which it was intended; that is to say, for the
purpose of putting forward by the government the estimate of money it needs, and
then in turn voting by the House of that money to the government […]
legislation and legislated changes in substance are not intended to be part of
supply, but rather ought to be part of the legislative process in the regular
way which requires three readings, committee stage, and, in other words, ample
opportunity for Members to participate in debate and
amendment.” [224]
Consideration of Estimates in Committee
When the Estimates are tabled in the House,
they are referred to standing committees for
consideration. [225]
When a committee decides to consider Estimates, each budgetary item, or
“Vote”, is called, proposed and debated as a distinct motion. A Vote
can be agreed to (the budget item is approved),
reduced [226]
(but, as
the case may be, no lower than the amount already approved in interim supply) or
negatived [227]
(the budget item is not
approved). [228]
Calling a Vote is the mechanism by which the committee opens debate on the
program expenditures to which that Vote pertains. Committees considering
Estimates may invite witnesses to appear; these typically include the Minister,
departmental or agency officials, and interested individuals or
groups.
The discussion on Vote 1 in the Main
Estimates (generally departmental administration or operations) is traditionally
wide-ranging. Typically, questions on departmental policy are directed to the
responsible Minister; questions of a more technical or administrative nature may
be referred through the Minister to departmental officials. Chairs have
generally exercised considerable latitude in the nature of the questioning
permitted on Estimates. [229]
A committee may not increase the amount of
a Vote, change the destination of a grant or change the destination or purpose
of a subsidy, as this would exceed the terms of the royal recommendation and
infringe on the financial initiative of the
Crown. [230]
A committee may move to reduce a Vote by an amount equal to that set aside in the
Estimates for a program or activity to which the committee is
opposed. [231]
Members
cannot propose a motion to reduce a Vote by its full amount; the procedure is
simply to vote against the question, “Shall the Vote
carry?”
Statutory expenditures are provided for on
an ongoing basis by way of legislation other than the Appropriation Act and are
identified in the Main Estimates for information purposes
only. [232]
Motions or
recommendations respecting statutory expenditures listed in the Main Estimates
are not allowed, although questions requesting information are acceptable.
Statutory items may be modified only by way of amending
legislation.
Report to the House
A committee is under no obligation to
report the Estimates back to the House; however, in the case of Main Estimates,
committees that do not report are deemed to have done so on May 31 and, in the
case of Supplementary Estimates, they are deemed to have done so on the third
sitting day before the last allotted day or the last sitting day in the Supply
period. [233]
Where a
committee chooses to report on the estimates, the Chair, or any member of the
committee acting on behalf of the Chair, rises during “Routine
Proceedings”, when the Speaker calls “Presenting Reports from
Committees”, for the purpose of presenting the report.
The rules provide for one exception to the
May 31 reporting deadline for Main Estimates. The Leader of the Opposition may
give, not later than the third sitting day prior to May 31, notice of a motion
to extend the committee consideration of the Main Estimates of a named
department or
agency. [234]
The motion is deemed adopted when called under “Motions” during Routine
Proceedings on the last sitting day prior to May
31. [235]
Adoption of
the motion allows the committee to continue its consideration of Main Estimates
for that department or agency and to delay the presentation of its report for up
to 10 sitting days, but not later than the ordinary hour of daily adjournment on
the sitting day immediately preceding the final allotted day in the Supply
period. [236]
If the committee has not reported by this time, it is deemed to have done so. Where the
designated committee chooses to report, the Chair, or any member of the
committee acting on behalf of the Chair, may rise on a point of order, at any
time prior to the reporting deadline, and the House will revert immediately to
“Presenting Reports from Committees” for the purpose of receiving
the report. [237]
The report of a committee on Estimates
ought to correspond, both in its form and as to its substance, with the
authority with which the committee is
invested. [238]
As it is the Estimates which have been referred to the committee by the House, it is
the Estimates (as agreed to, reduced or negatived) which should be reported back
to the House. In making other substantive recommendations, the committee is
clearly going beyond the scope of its order of reference, which was to deal with
the Estimates. [239]
The Speaker has expressed strong reservations regarding the inclusion of
substantive recommendations in committee reports on
Estimates. [240]
A standing committee wishing to make substantive recommendations respecting the
Estimates which it has considered may do so under its permanent authority to
study and report on any matter relating to the mandate, management and operation
of the departments or agencies it oversees. [241]
A motion to
concur in a committee report on Estimates can only be considered on an allotted
day as part of the Business of
Supply. [242]
A committee may also report on the
expenditure plans and priorities in future fiscal years of the departments and
agencies whose Main Estimates are before the committee for consideration. [243]
Such reports
must be presented to the House not later than the last sitting day in June, as
provided for in the parliamentary calendar, and any concurrence motion can only
be considered by the House on an allotted
day. [244]
Concurrence in Estimates
The Estimates, as reported or deemed
reported by the standing committees, must be concurred in by the House in order
for the government to introduce the appropriation bill authorizing the necessary
withdrawals from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. Any motions to concur in
Estimates are proposed on the final allotted day of a Supply period, once the
proceedings related to an opposition motion are completed. In a normal Supply
cycle, concurrence motions would occur as
follows: [245]
- On the last allotted day in the
Supply period ending December 10, a motion or motions to concur in Supplementary
Estimates would be considered, if any were tabled by the government during the
period;
- On the last allotted day in the
Supply period ending March 26, a motion or motions to concur in Supplementary
Estimates would be considered first, if any were tabled by the government during
the period, followed by a motion to concur in Interim Supply for the next fiscal
year;
- On the last allotted day in the
Supply period ending June 23, a motion or motions to concur in the Main
Estimates would be considered first, followed by a motion or motions to concur
in Final Supplementary Estimates relating to the preceding fiscal year and a
motion or motions to concur in Supplementary Estimates for the current fiscal
year, if any were tabled by the government during the period.
A motion to concur in the Main or
Supplementary Estimates is a motion to concur in the Estimates as reported or
deemed reported by the standing committees. The government, usually through the
President of the Treasury Board, will give 48 hours’ written notice of a
motion or motions to concur in the
Estimates. [246]
Should a committee have reduced or negatived a Vote or Votes in those Estimates,
the government may move that they be restored or
reinstated. [247]
Forty-eight hours’ written notice is also required for any motions to
restore or reinstate Estimates which have been reduced or negatived in
committee. [248]
Furthermore, any Member may give notice to
oppose any item in the Estimates before the House: such items are then referred
to as “opposed items” in the Estimates. The notice period for
opposed items is 24 hours in the Supply periods ending December 10 and March 26,
and 48 hours in the Supply period ending June
23. [249]
Members give
notice of opposed items to express opposition to the total amount of a
Vote [250]
or to a specified portion of that
amount. [251]
A notice to oppose an item in the Estimates is not a
motion. [252]
Because
the government may propose in one motion the concurrence in all the Votes in the
Estimates, [253]
the notice to oppose an item is rather a mechanism by which Members force the
government to propose a separate motion for the concurrence in each Vote that is
the subject of total or partial
opposition. [254]
The wording of the general concurrence motion is then changed to exclude those
Votes. [255]
On one occasion, Members who had filed notices of opposed items in the Estimates
informed the Clerk of the House that they did not wish to proceed with their
notices. Thus, the separate motions were not put to the House, and the Votes
that had been opposed were reintegrated in the general concurrence
motion. [256]
On the last allotted day of each Supply
period, once the proceedings on the opposition motion are completed, motions to
restore or reinstate Votes in the Estimates are considered first, followed by
motions to concur in each of the Votes for which a notice of opposition has been
given, and the motion to concur in altogether the remaining unopposed
Votes [257]
before
proceeding to the appropriation bill based on those Estimates. For that purpose,
the House may sit beyond the normal hour of adjournment for that
day. [258]
In principle, all the motions are debatable
and amendable. [259]
However, in practice, on the last allotted day in each of the Supply periods
ending December 10 and March 26, the debate on the opposition motion, which has
precedence over all government motions to dispose of the Business of Supply,
continues throughout the day and is interrupted by the Speaker at 15 minutes
before the time provided for Government Orders expires. At that time, all the
motions, starting with the opposition motion, are decided in sequence without
further debate or
amendment. [260]
On the last allotted day in the Supply
period ending June 23, unless previously disposed of, at 6:30 p.m., the Speaker
interrupts the proceedings on the opposition motion. If the opposition motion is
not a motion that must come to a vote, proceedings on the motion expire at the
conclusion of the debate and the House proceeds to consider a motion or motions
relating to the Main
Estimates. [261]
If the opposition motion is a motion that must come to a vote, the Speaker must put
forthwith and without further debate or amendment, every question necessary to
dispose of the proceedings and any recorded division requested is deferred to
the end of the consideration of a motion or motions relating to the Main
Estimates. [262]
At 10:00 p.m., the Speaker must interrupt any proceedings then before the House,
proceed first to the taking of any deferred division or divisions necessary to
dispose of the opposition
motion, [263]
as the case may be, and subsequently put forthwith, without further debate or
amendment, every question necessary to dispose of the motion or motions relating
to the Main Estimates. Immediately thereafter, the Speaker must put successively
and without debate every question necessary to dispose of any business relating
to the final Estimates for the preceding fiscal year or for any Supplementary
Estimates, the restoration or reinstatement of any Vote in the final or
Supplementary Estimates, or any opposed item in the final or Supplementary
Estimates.
The Supply Bill or Appropriation Act
Concurrence in the Estimates or in Interim
Supply is an order of the House to bring in an appropriation bill or bills
giving effect to the spending authority (amounts and their destinations) that
the House has
approved. [264]
Once adopted, the legislation will authorize the government to withdraw from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund amounts up to, but not exceeding, the amounts set out
in the Estimates for the purposes specified in the Votes.
Supply bills must be based on the Estimates
or Interim Supply as concurred in by the
House. [265]
They bear
the standard title: An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for
the public service of Canada for the financial year ending March 31 (year). [266]
They begin with a preamble which cites both the message from the Governor General
recommending the Estimates to the House, and the purpose of the Estimates, which
is “to defray certain expenses of the public service of Canada, not
otherwise provided for” for a specified fiscal year. The Chair has
cautioned that an Appropriation Act gives authority only for a single year and
is therefore not appropriate for expenditure which is meant to continue for a
longer period, or
indefinitely. [267]
On one occasion, Speaker Parent expressed strong reservations about the reference
to two fiscal years in the long title of a Supply
bill. [268]
He qualified the reference as “not needed” and
“misleading”. Although a separate statute may grant a government
agency legislative authority to carry the unexpended balance of money
appropriated for a fiscal year over to the end of the following
year, [269]
the appropriation itself is and must be for one year only and not be referred to as
a multi-year appropriation.
The destinations and the amounts
attributable to each spending item, or Vote, are set out in the schedules
attached to each bill. These provide the governing conditions under which
expenditures may be made. The schedules are organized alphabetically, by
department, in both the English and French versions of the
bill. [270]
Supply bills are considered on the last
allotted day in each Supply period, at the end of the day, after the Speaker has
interrupted the proceedings on the opposition motion or the Main Estimates, as
the case may be, in order for the House to go through all the remaining steps to
complete the Business of Supply for the period. At that time, the House must
proceed through all the motions related to the Estimates, the Interim Supply and
the Supply bills without further debate or
amendments. [271]
As all bills are printed and made available once they have received first reading,
Members would not normally be made aware of the content of the Supply bills
until late in the day, at a time when the proceedings are dealt with
expeditiously in the House. To compensate for this lack of time, the practice
established in recent years is therefore to allow for an early distribution of
the draft copy of the bills to Members at the beginning of the Supply
proceedings on that day. The House invariably gives its consent to that special
arrangement. [272]
Like all public bills, Supply bills are
“read” twice, considered in committee, and read a third time before
going to the
Senate. [273]
Because
concurrence in the Estimates or in Interim Supply is an order of the House to
bring in the appropriation bill, first reading proceeds forthwith, without the
formality of introduction, and a motion is proposed that it be read a second
time and referred to a Committee of the
Whole. [274]
Although, theoretically, a Supply bill is
debatable, and therefore amendable, at all stages after first reading, it
generally passes without debate or amendment on the last allotted
day. [275]
However, if time for debate were to remain on that day, and debate were
to occur at the
second and third reading stages of the bill, speeches would be limited to 20
minutes, followed by a period not exceeding 10 minutes for questions and
comments. [276]
In a Committee of the Whole, the bill is considered clause by clause and then
reported back to the
House. [277]
It is at
the Committee of the Whole stage that a Member of the opposition usually seeks
assurance from the President of the Treasury Board that the Supply bill is in
its usual form. [278]
Bills reported from a Committee of the Whole are concurred in without debate or
amendment. [279]
Once
the bill has been read the third time, it is forwarded to the Senate, where it
must be given a further three readings before receiving Royal Assent and
becoming law.
Normally, bills which have passed in both
Houses of Parliament are held by the Clerk of the Parliaments (the Clerk of the
Senate) until the Governor General (or a deputy) grants them Royal Assent.
However, because the granting of Supply is a prerogative of the House of
Commons, Supply bills are always returned to the House and taken by its Speaker
to the Senate Chamber to receive Royal Assent. The Speaker, as spokesperson for
the House, assembles with Members from the House of Commons, at the bar of the
Senate Chamber. The Speaker addresses the Crown’s representative,
saying:
May it please Your Excellency
(Honour [280]):
The Commons of Canada have voted Supplies required to enable the Government to
defray certain expenses of the public service. In the name of the Commons, I
present to Your Excellency (Honour) the following Bill: (title), To which Bill I
humbly request Your Excellency’s (Honour’s)
Assent.
The Speaker presents the bill to the Clerk
of the Senate who reads out the title of the bill, to which the Governor General
(or a deputy) nods consent. The Royal Assent is then pronounced by the Clerk of
the Senate in the following words:
In Her Majesty’s name, (the
Honourable the Deputy to) His/Her Excellency the Governor General thanks Her
Loyal Subjects, accepts their benevolence, and assents to this
Bill.
The Journals of the House of Commons
carries the text of the Speaker’s address, together with the response from
the Crown’s representative in granting Assent, and the title of the
bill. [281]