Thursday, December 2, 2021

The Committee of Selection has the honour to present its

SECOND REPORT

On November 25, 2021, the Senate authorized your committee to make recommendations to the Senate on the duration of membership on committees. Your committee now presents an interim report.

During the first and second sessions of the 43rd Parliament, the Senate adopted sessional orders introducing provisions to preserve the number of committee seats agreed to for each recognized party or recognized parliamentary group, after members were named, even if a senator’s affiliation changed for any reason.

Accordingly, your committee now recommends that, for the remainder of the session, and notwithstanding any provision of the Rules, usual practice or previous order:

1. Except in the case of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators and the Standing Committee on Audit and Oversight:

(a) a non-affiliated senator may, by written notice to the Clerk, place him- or herself under the authority of the leader or facilitator of a recognized party or recognized parliamentary group, for the purposes of making membership changes in relation to the membership of one or more committees, including the joint committees, following the process established in rule 12-5 of the Rules of the Senate;

(b) except as provided in sub-paragraph c), if a senator ceases to be a member of a particular recognized party or recognized parliamentary group for any reason, he or she simultaneously cease to be a member of any committee of which he or she is then a member, with the resulting vacancy to be filled by the leader or facilitator of the party or group to which the senator had belonged, following the processes established in rule 12-5;

(c) if a senator ceases to be a member of a recognized party or recognized parliamentary group because that party or group ceases to exist, he or she remain a member of any committee of which he or she was a member, subject to the provisions of sub-paragraph d), but cease to be chair or deputy chair of any committee on which he or she held such a position, and cease to be a member of any Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of which he or she was a member; and

(d)if a non-affiliated senator becomes a member of a recognized party or recognized parliamentary group, he or she thereby cease to be a member of any committee of which he or she is then a member, with the resulting vacancy to be filled either:

(i)by the leader or facilitator of the party or group to which the non-affiliated senator’s seat had originally belonged, as indicated in the first report of this committee, following the processes established in rule 12-5 or the Rules of the Senate, or

(ii)by order of the Senate or the adoption by the Senate of a report of the Committee of Selection if there was no such indication in the first report of this committee as adopted by the Senate; and

2.any changes to the membership of a committee pursuant to paragraph 1 of this report be recorded in the Journals of the Senate.

Your committee also appends a dissenting opinion from the Honourable Senator Terry M. Mercer to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

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