Document Information

Date: 1981-02-19
By: Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Canada, Senate Debates, 32nd Parl, 1st Sess, 1981 at 1775-1776.
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February 19, 1981 SENATE
DEBATES

THE CONSTITUTION
ABBREVIATED FORM OF MOTION FOR ADDRESS AUTHORIZED
Hon. Royce Frith (Deputy Leader of the Government):
Honourable senators, with your permission I should like brief-
ly to deal with a housekeeping problem. Honourable senators
will have noticed that, since the introduction of the motion for
the Address to Her Majesty, the full motion and the full text
of the Constitution Act, l98l, and all of the provisions includ-
ing the appendices, arc printed each day, The like situation has
obtained in the other place, but they solved their problem
yesterday by passing an order to the effect that the entire
material I have referred to will be printed only at the begin-
ning of each week, and all that will appear then in the Vales
and Proceedings of the House-which is their version of our
Minutes of the of the Proceedings of the Senate”-will be the follow-
ing short statement:
The House resumed debate on the motion of Mr.
Chretien, seconded by Mr. Roberts, for an Address to
Her Majesty the Queen respecting the Constitution of
Canada.
Without wishing to follow slavishly what they do there, we
could adopt the same procedure here. To that end, I have
conferred with my honourable friend, the Leader of the Oppo-
sition, and I understand that he is willing to second a motion
that I should like to put.
I ask leave to move:
That it be ordered that the motion for an Address to
Her Majesty the Queen respecting the Constitution of
Canada be printed in the following abbreviated form in
the Orders of the Day, the Minutes oflhe Proceedings of
the Senate and the Debates oflhe Senate:
“Resuming the debate on the motion of the Honourable
Senator Pcrrault, seconded by the Honourable Senator
Frith:
That an Address be presented to Her Majesty the
Queen respecting the Constitution of Canada”,
and that the full text of the main motion be printed in
the Orders of the Day for the first sitting day of each
week; that the full text of any motion in amendment be
printed each day until disposed of; and that the full text
of the main motion be printed in the Minutes oflhe
Proceedings oflhe Senate for the day a vote is taken on
an amendment and for the day that the main motion is
finally disposed of.
The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, is leave
granted?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Hon. the Speaker: It is moved by the Ilonourable
Senator Frith, seconded by the Honourable Senator Flynn,
P.C.—-
Some Hon. Senators: Dispense.
The Hon. the Speaker: ls it your pleasure, honourable
senators, to adopt the motion‘?
Hon. John M. Godfrey: Honourable senators, why is it felt
necessary to republish the entire text every Tuesday‘? That
only has the effect of avoiding its publication on Wednesdays
and Thursdays, and it has already been published several times
and will also be republished each time an amendment is
moved.
Senator Frith: Honourable senators, the reason for publish-
ing it at the beginning of each week is that the debate will be
recommenced each week and it is expected that the matter will
be on the Orders of the Day each week. However, if it is the
wish of the Senate to make an order requiring us not to reprint
it at all, I would be content with that. I suggest, though, that
we try the procedure set out in my motion for a week or two,
and if that, too, seems burdensome. perhaps we could dispense
with it at that point.
Senator Godfrey: I was not suggesting that it not be reprint-
ed at all but that we could simply do away with its being
reprinted automatically. ‘

SENATE
DEBATES February 19, l98l
Senator Frith: lt would be reprinted automatically only at
the first of each week.
Senator Godfrey: Because it will be reprinted when amend-
ments are moved, I thought that the automatic reprinting on
Tuesdays could also be done away with.
Hon. Jacques Flynn (Leader of the Opposition): Honour-
able senators, I wish to confirm that I do agree with the
Deputy Leader of the Government on this motion. I should
also like to suggest that the matter be considered by the
Standing Committee on internal Economy, Budgets and
Administration, which could deal not only with this particular
problem and the suggestion made by Senator Godfrey but also
with the problem of other matters that remain on the order
paper for lengthy periods of time, which is both costly and
useless.
l am not, incidentally, criticizing senators for having ques-
tions that are long outstanding. For instance, I am certainly
not criticizing Senator Macquarrie because he has questions
concerning lrish moss which have been in the Minutes oflhe
Proceedings oflhe Senate since last May; but I suppose that if
they had been printed once every two weeks or so that would
have been sufficient. ln other words, there is the problem of
economy. However, I realize that there would also be a
problem, from the individual senator‘s point of view, that
senators desire to have their questions replied to as quickly as
possible, and that might require having their questions printed
frequently.
In any event, I think the whole problem should be referred
to the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and
Administration, and that for the time being we should adopt
Senator Frith’s motion.
Senator Frith: Honourable senators, I support the observa-
tions made by the Leader of the Opposition on the additional
matters. ‘
Hon. Douglas D. Everett: I should like to say to the
Honourable Senator Flynn that I can sympathize with him in
respect of Senator Macquarrie’s not receiving an answer to his
questions, because I put a question, I believe it was five times,
to Senator de Cotret when he was sitting on this side. and I
still have not had an answer. lt just occurs to me that perhaps
Senator Flynn could get an answer for me some time,
Senator Flynn: I think that would be rather irregular, but I
find it interesting. It might be more appropriate ifyou were to
put your question to the new administration, since it has had
more time to deal with the question than we had.
Senator Everett: That is a good point; I will do that.
Senator Frith: You might have to wait a long time, if you
wait for another administration to deal with the question.
Motion agreed to.