Proceedings of the Standing Committee on
Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament

Issue 14 - Sixth Report of the Committee

Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Standing Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament has the honour to table its

SIXTH REPORT

Your committee, which was authorized by the Senate on Thursday, May 28, 2009, to examine the manner in which committee substitutions are made and in particular the need for temporary as well as permanent replacements of committee members, is pleased to report as follows:

At the commencement of each session, the Senate appoints a Committee of Selection whose duties include the nomination of the senators to serve on select committees (except the Committee on Conflict of Interest for Senators). Once the Senate has concurred in the report of the Committee of Selection, senators serve on the committees to which they were appointed for the duration of the session. The Leader of the Government, the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of any recognized third party in the Senate may, however, make a change to the membership of a committee for senators who are members of their respective caucuses by filing a notice to that effect with the Clerk of the Senate. Each leader may, in accordance with the Rules of the Senate, delegate this task to any senator in his or her caucus. In practice, these functions are entrusted to the whip of each party. The Clerk of the Senate has also delegated the authority to receive notices of membership change to the Committees Directorate and each committee clerk.

Membership changes are permanent: they last until the end of the session. The Rules do not provide for a senator to be temporarily replaced on a committee. In practice, temporary replacements are, however, achieved in the following manner: The senator who is unable to attend the business of a committee for a meeting or period of time is replaced by another senator. Then, when the original committee member is able to resume attendance at meetings, he or she replaces that replacing senator — thus restoring the original membership of the committee. This practice, which works well for the replacement of a senator who is neither the chair nor deputy chair of a committee, may be the source of some concern when it comes to the replacement of the presiding officers of a committee.

Upon being replaced, the chair is no longer a member of the committee and cannot, therefore, be its chair. It ensues that the committee is no longer properly constituted because it does not have a chair. The deputy chair cannot act for the chair since he or she may only replace the chair in his or her absence, but may not replace him or her if the chair position is vacant. Therefore, should the chair of a committee be replaced, the first item of business should be the election of a new chair. Such an election is presided over by the clerk of the committee. Should the former chair of the committee be re-appointed to the committee, he or she would have to be elected anew as chair of the committee before resuming his or her functions.

The replacement of a deputy chair can also be problematic. While a committee remains properly constituted when its deputy chair is replaced, the business of the committee may be stalled should he or she not be replaced. For example, steering committees, which are usually composed of three members: the chair, the deputy chair and another senator, would not be able to meet should the deputy chair be replaced on the committee and no senator elected in his or her place as deputy chair.

These concerns led the Senate to refer to your committee the manner in which committee replacements are made and in particular the need for temporary as well as permanent replacements of committee members.

In the examination of this issue, your committee heard two witnesses:

• First, Senator Sharon Carstairs appeared before your committee on June 17, 2009. Senator Carstairs had given the notice of the motion which led to the reference of May 28, 2009 on this matter. Before your committee, she explained the problems that may currently exist when the chair of a committee seeks to be replaced for one meeting.
• Second, on 15 September 2009, Ms. Heather Lank, Principal Clerk, Senate Committees Directorate, testified before your committee. Ms. Lank explained the rules and practices pertaining to the replacement of senators on committees. She also provided to your committee various options with respect to a temporary replacement system.

Your committee has carefully considered all options presented by Ms. Lank. It particularly looked closely at the possibility of establishing a "permanent membership — temporary substitutions" system. Under such a system, membership on committees would be permanent and could be changed only by the Senate, but temporary substitutions, that do not affect the permanent membership of the committee, could be made for one meeting or for a given period of time. While your committee found this avenue attractive, it is reluctant to propose amendments to the Rules of the Senate on the matter at this time. Your committee is concerned about unintended consequences that such amendments to the current system might cause. It also wishes to avoid disrupting the current balance achieved within the Rules. Your committee would like to study further any implications that these amendments might have for our Rules and practices. Your committee believes that its overall examination of the Senate committee system would be a more appropriate forum for such a study.

Moreover, your committee notes that the concerns with the Rules on replacement of chairs and deputy chairs on committees may be more the result of an absence of awareness about what they actually are. As stated above, temporary replacements on committees can be achieved as follows:

• A senator unable to attend the business of a committee is replaced by another senator;
• Once the senator is again able to attend the business of a committee, he or she will replace the senator who replaced him or her.

As stated above, committees should always make sure that the chair position is filled at all times. To that end, these additional steps ought to be taken when the chair of a committee is replaced:

• A committee whose chair was replaced must elect a new chair (the election of whom is presided over by the clerk of the committee);
• As soon as the former chair has rejoined the membership of the committee, he or she must be re-elected to the chair position.

As for the deputy chair of a committee, his or her replacement on a committee does not always necessitate that another deputy chair be elected. A committee is still properly constituted despite the absence of a deputy chair. However, a committee should seek to elect a new deputy chair if it wishes to transact business that requires the presence of its deputy chair, such as a meeting of the steering committee. If no such election occurs, a deputy chair will resume his or her functions upon rejoining membership of the committee, since his or her original election stands. However, if a new deputy chair has been elected, the former deputy chair would need to be re-elected into the position before he or she can assume that function again.

That being said, should both the chair and deputy chair be absent from a committee meeting, but not replaced, the committee need not elect a new chair and deputy chair, but can simply proceed to the election of an acting chair for that given meeting (such an election is presided over by the clerk of the committee).

Your committee believes that there should be more awareness of the Rules on replacement of senators on committees, especially for those who are chairs and deputy chairs. One purpose of this report was to meet this objective.

For all these reasons, while your committee will monitor the issues pertaining to replacement of committee members, it does not see fit to recommend, at this time, amendments to the Rules of the Senate on this matter.

Respectfully submitted,

DONALD H. OLIVER

Chair