REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE | THURSDAY,
March 25, 2004 |
The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
has the honour to present its
THIRD REPORT
Your Committee, to which was referred Bill S-15,
An Act to amend the Act of incorporation of Queen's Theological College, has, in
obedience to the Order of Reference of Thursday, March 11, 2004, examined the
said Bill and now reports the same without amendment but with observations,
which are appended to this report.
Respectfully submitted,
GEORGE FUREY
Chair
OBSERVATIONS
Bill S-15 is a private bill that amends the 1912
Act of Parliament that incorporated Queen’s Theological College in Kingston.
In all that time, the College has not returned to Parliament to ask for
amendments to that Act. Meanwhile,
much has changed. The College was
originally founded as a Presbyterian College, but when the union of the
Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches took place in 1925 to
produce the United Church of Canada, the Act was not changed to reflect this new
relationship. There are a number of
other amendments to the Act that the College also wishes to see made, including
changes in the composition and role of its Board of Management.
Your Committee is satisfied that the College has
complied with all of the requirements for a private bill set out in the Rules of
the Senate, and accepts the testimony of College representatives that the
contents of Bill S-15 are reasonable and required.
On the other hand, your Committee believes that the time has passed when private corporations incorporated by a Special Act of Parliament should be required to return to Parliament to modernize their governance structures. Your Committee has previously recommended that the Canada Corporations Act should be amended to permit these corporations to regulate such matters internally, and we reiterate that recommendation in the context of Queen’s Theological College and all other Special Act corporations in the same situation.