Liberals ready to move to change House rules on omnibus bills, prorogation

The Liberal government is ready to move forward with several reforms to the rules of the House of Commons, with proposed changes covering prorogation and omnibus legislation.

The changes won’t include new rules to codify a prime minister’s question period, but the Liberals are committing to continue the recent practice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking all questions each Wednesday.

The Liberals backed away from other proposals in April, after the government’s release of a discussion paper on reform prompted opposition outrage.

When the Liberals refused to agree that they would only proceed with the consensus of all parties, Conservatives and New Democrats filibustered a Liberal MP’s attempt to have the government’s proposals studied by a House of Commons committee.

The motion to implement the changes will be put forward after several days of negotiation between the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats, but it is not yet clear whether there is all-party agreement to proceed.

Separate votes

Under the changes proposed by the Liberals, a government minister would be required to table an explanation after every use of prorogation to explain why the government prorogued Parliament. That explanation would then be referred to a House committee.

For omnibus legislation, the Speaker would also be empowered to allow for separate votes and studies for bills “where there is not a common element connecting the various provisions or where unrelated matters are linked.” Budget bills that implement measures outlined in the federal budget would still be permitted.

In addition to prorogation and omnibus bills — two issues that became points of controversy in recent years — the Liberal motion would change the date on which the government’s budgetary requests are tabled in Parliament and codify that parliamentary secretaries can be non-voting members of House committees.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-house-reform-rules-1.4162329?cmp=rss