Proroguing Parliament does NOT terminate Bill to Repeal the Long-Gun Registry (Private Member’s Bill C-391)

KENORA, ON – “Today, NDP Candidate Tania Cameron, displayed her lack of tact and knowledge, and shows just how desperate the NDP are by issuing an insulting press release that calls prorogation a “slap in the face to every law-abiding long-gun owner who has worked to have the registry abolished,” stated Greg Rickford, Kenora MP.   

While the government has prorogued this session of Parliament, it would appear that Ms. Cameron is unaware of how Parliament works. Since 2003, prorogation has had no effect on Private Members’ Business. If a Private Member’s Bill is at a certain stage but had not been completed, the item is restored at the beginning of that stage. Private Members’ Bills that were referred to a committee in the previous session are deemed referred back to the same committee, as is the case with Bill C-391, and any other Private Member’s Business currently on the Order Paper. “Bill C-391 does not die with this prorogation, as the NDP wants you to believe. It will continue to move through its legislative process when the House of Commons Standing committees resume their business in March,” said Rickford.

“Our government has made it very clear that we support the scrapping of the long-gun registry and I continue to support Bill C-391 and hope that my colleagues from all sides of the House, those that understand this process, will continue to do so. I have worked very hard to show my constituents that I am committed to ending the wasteful long-gun registry,” continued Rickford.

“It’s really too bad that Tania didn’t do her homework, doesn’t understand how Parliament works, and continues to mislead the constituents of the great Kenora riding,” concluded Rickford.



Backgrounder

The information below is taken from the online House of Commons Procedure and Practice Manual (Second Edition – 2009) web link to follow.

Prorogation and Dissolution

Prorogation
Prorogation of a Parliament, a prerogative act of the Crown taken on the advice of the Prime Minister,[108] results in the termination of a session. It is possible to prorogue a session of Parliament by proclamation when the House is sitting[109] or during an adjournment.[110] Both the House of Commons and the Senate then stand prorogued until the opening of the next session. Parliament meets for a new session in the normal manner on the date set in the proclamation. Parliament is prorogued either by the Governor General (or Deputy of the Governor General) in the Senate Chamber, or by proclamation published in the Canada Gazette.[111] When Parliament stands prorogued to a certain day, a subsequent proclamation (or proclamations) may be issued to advance or defer the date.[112]

Effects of Prorogation
Prorogation of a session brings to an end all proceedings before Parliament. With certain exceptions, unfinished business “dies” on the Order Paper and must be started anew in a subsequent session.

Bills which have not received Royal Assent before prorogation are “entirely terminated” and, in order to be proceeded with in the new session, must be reintroduced as if they had never existed.[113] On occasion, however, bills have been reinstated at the start of a new session at the same stage they had reached at the end of the previous session. This has been accomplished either with the unanimous consent of the House[114] or through the adoption of a motion to that effect, after notice and debate.[115] The House has also adopted provisional amendments to the Standing Orders to carry over legislation to the next session, following a prorogation.[116]

Since 2003, prorogation has had almost no practical effect on Private Members’ Business.[117] As a result of this significant exception to the termination of business principle, the List for the Consideration of Private Members’ Business established at the beginning of a Parliament, and all bills and motions in the Order of Precedence, as well as those outside of it, continue from session to session.[118] If consideration of an item at a certain stage had begun but had not been completed, the item is restored at the beginning of that stage, as if no debate had yet occurred. Private Members’ bills that were referred to a committee in the previous session are deemed referred back to the same committee. Private Members’ bills which have been read a third time and passed are sent again to the Senate.[119]

Committees, including special[120] and legislative committees, cease to exist and all orders of reference lapse.[121] Committee memberships, except the membership of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, are terminated[122] and all Chairs and Vice-Chairs cease to hold office.[123] The Panel of Chairs for legislative committees also ceases to exist.[124]

In addition, when the House is prorogued, no documents may be tabled until the first day of the new session. If documents requested through an Order of the House or an Address to the Governor General have not been tabled at the time of prorogation, the requests carry over from session to session, within the same Parliament. They are considered to have been readopted at the start of the new session without requiring a motion to that effect.[125] Requests for government responses to committee reports and petitions survive in the same manner.[126]

In general, during a prorogation Members are released from their parliamentary duties until, in the new session, the House and its committees resume activities. However, the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the members of the Board of Internal Economy continue in office while the Deputy Chair and Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole do not. Prorogation has no effect on the activities of Members involved in parliamentary associations or on international and interparliamentary exchange programs

Taken from: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/procedure-book-livre/Document.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&sbdid=889ADBF1-F9D0-48F3-A479-FD4B5F7EF59D&sbpid=21572679-CC89-4158-8D8E-5367BA32BE74 (after clicking scroll down)