CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 141 Ï NUMBER 138 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 39th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Monday, April 23, 2007 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 8513 HOUSE OF COMMONS Monday, April 23, 2007 The House met at 11 a.m. This bill is also a way of clearly establishing that the legislative branch is responsible for the entire legislative process and that the executive branch has to carry out decisions made by Canada's Parliament, such as the decision to adopt bills in this House or the Prayers Senate. In a way, this bill strengthens legislative power and ensures that the executive serves the legislative and not the reverse. We would, however, like to add some qualifications to the bill PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS before us. We think that three amendments would be desirable. First, Bill S-202 allows legislation not to come into force within ten years. Ï (1105) We feel that this is much too long. The House should question the [Translation] relevance of any legislation that has not come into force after five years, as well as the rationale for the government's decision not to STATUTES REPEAL ACT put it into force. We will therefore ask that the bill to be amended so The House resumed from December 5 consideration of the motion as to reduce from ten years to five years the government's that Bill S-202, An Act to repeal legislation that has not come into discretionary period for putting into force legislation passed by force within ten years of receiving royal assent, be read the second Parliament, that is the House of Commons and the Senate. time and referred to a committee. Second, we would want the government to be required to set out Mr. Pierre Paquette (Joliette, BQ): Mr. Speaker, before we before Parliament its reasons for not having put the legislation into begin looking at Bill S-202, I want to thank the leader of the Bloc force, or not planning to do so, despite the fact that it has received Québécois, the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie, for placing his royal assent. As I indicated, the goal is to enable the House to trust in me by naming me House Leader of the Bloc Québécois. I exercise its legislative responsibility in ensuring that the government also thank the voters in Joliette because, without their support, I does not do as it pleases with legislation passed by the House or by could not have been entrusted with this responsibility by the leader. I Parliament as a whole. In this respect, we feel that the type of can assure my colleagues in this House that I will take part in explanation to be provided to Parliament by the government to parliamentary debates as constructively as possible, as I have always justify not having put the legislation into force needs to be clarified. tried to do since I began sitting in Parliament seven years ago. Third, clause 3 should be amended to reflect the fact that the I would also like to thank the member for Roberval—Lac-Saint- members of the Senate are not elected, but appointed by the Prime Jean for all the work he has done, and particularly for everything he Minister, as everyone knows. will be doing in the coming weeks, because obviously I am counting on his support, which I know I can rely on. As well, he has Ï (1110) knowledge and expertise to pass on to me in order to make as We propose amending clause 3, which currently reads as follows: smooth a transition as possible. The member for Roberval—Lac- Saint-Jean will be with us until the end of this session. Every Act or provision listed in the annual report is repealed on December 31 of the year in which the report is laid unless it comes into force on or before that In my opinion, Bill S-202, an act to repeal legislation that has not December 31 or during that year either House of Parliament adopts a resolution that the Act or provision not be repealed. come into force within ten years of receiving royal assent, makes a great deal of sense. Some legislation has not come into force 10 We propose amending it to: years after it was adopted by the House and received royal assent. Every Act or provision listed in the annual report is repealed on December 31 of Something therefore needs to be corrected in the way legislation is the year in which the report is laid unless it comes into force on or before that made, and Bill S-202 suggests how this can be done. December 31 or during that year the House of Commons adopts a resolution that the Act or provision not be repealed. The Bloc Québécois will support this bill, which is designed essentially to clean up legislation that has been adopted but has not We find it is the responsibility of the House of Commons, of those come into force. Using a mechanism that I will come back to, this who sit here, who were elected by the public—the electors—in their bill would force the government to make the House aware of such respective ridings. We think this should be a privilege of the House legislation. of Commons and not the Senate. 8514 COMMONS DEBATES April 23, 2007 Private Members' Business As I mentioned earlier, some bills and legislation have been Ï (1115) passed by both Houses of Parliament. Although they received royal assent, they were never brought into force by the government. Parliamentarians, including government members, should be This occurs when a bill is passed and Parliament gives the concerned about this. As I said, the Library of Parliament provided government the latitude to decide when the bill will come into force the senators who introduced this bill with a list of 56 bills that were in order to give the government time to negotiate the bill's never brought into force. Consider, for example, the Motor Vehicle implementation with the provinces or, for regulations, the time to Fuel Consumption Standards Act, which I mentioned earlier, and the give the public service the latitude to consider all the implications. Canadian Heritage Languages Institute Act from 1991, to name but Nonetheless, for bills, the government is certainly not given this two. latitude in order to have the discretionary power to implement legislation or not, or to postpone its implementation indefinitely. The Bloc Québécois supports the principle underlying the bill and In our opinion, it is important to have a mechanism that ensures hopes that the committee will be able to improve it— that the government is required to bring back to the House all the bills that have not been implemented. As I was saying earlier, we The Acting Speaker (Mr. Andrew Scheer): The hon. member propose that this be done over a period of five years rather than ten. for Burnaby—Douglas. It is also important to receive the necessary explanations from the government on why the legislation has not been implemented, or why the government does not intend to implement it. [English] It may very well be that changing political, economic, social, Mr. Bill Siksay (Burnaby—Douglas, NDP): Mr. Speaker, this environmental and cultural circumstances make it appropriate not to morning I am honoured to address Bill S-202, the statutes repeal act. implement certain legislation. The Library of Parliament has compiled information. There are Let me begin by congratulating the member for Joliette on his acts dating back to before 1985. These deal with such matters as appointment as House leader for the Bloc Québécois. I know that he motor vehicle fuel consumption standards. It seems to me that we will bring his not only his experience but his commitment to this could do away with that particular piece of legislation, since place to that job. I also want to thank the member for Roberval— consumption standards have obviously changed considerably over Lac-Saint-Jean for his work in that position up to this point. They are the past 20 years. I have not read it, but I am convinced that it is different MPs, I know, and they bring different perspectives to that completely obsolete by now. This explains the purpose of the bill. important task in this place. The mechanism in the bill provides that, on December 31 of the ninth year that an act has not been put into force, Parliament may be notified through an annual report laid before each House of I also want to thank the member for Mississauga South for Parliament, namely the House of Commons and the Senate. The presenting this Senate bill, the statutes repeal act, here in the House government then has one year, from December 31 of the ninth year, for our consideration. I know that it comes out of his commitment to to indicate whether it intends to put the act into force, or to explain the functioning of this place. He takes a great interest in how the why not, in the Canada Gazette. chamber works and I appreciate his initiative around this important legislation. In that case, if the government decides to explain why it will not implement an act, the act must be repealed if it is not brought into force by the following December 31, unless the House of Commons As we have heard, this legislation seeks to address the fact that a —if it considers the government's explanation to be unsatisfactory— number of pieces of legislation have never come into effect.