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

Issue No. 17 - Order of Reference

Extract from the Journals of the Senate, Tuesday, November 27, 2018:

The question being put on the motion of the Honourable Senator Joyal, P.C., seconded by the Honourable Senator Cordy, for the adoption of the tenth report (interim), as amended, of the Special Senate Committee on Senate Modernization (Senate Modernization: Moving Forward (Nature)), it was adopted.

Richard Denis
Interim Clerk of the Senate

NOTE: The tenth report of the Special Senate Committee on Senate Modernization, as amended, included the following recommendations:

That the Standing Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament develop and propose to the Senate a mission and purpose statement for the Senate modeled on the following:

The Senate is the appointed Upper House in Canada's bicameral Parliament. It plays an important complementary role to the elected House of Commons by:

(i) Providing independent "sober second thought'' to legislation, with particular respect to Canada's national interests, aboriginal peoples, regions, minorities and under-represented segments of Canada's populations;

(ii) Undertaking policy studies, reports and inquiries on public policy issues relevant to Canadians; and

(iii) Understanding, sharing and representing the views and concerns of different groups, based on a senator's unique perspective.

That the Senate invite the Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament and the Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration to review the totality of its administrative rules as embodied in the Senate Administrative Rules, its procedural rules as embodied in the Rules of the Senate, as well as the Senate administrative processes, and revise them such that they incorporate the multiple roles of the modern Senate.