Ottawa

Whatever happened to QP reform?

After Michael Chong’s motion to reform QP was passed at second reading during the last Parliament, the Procedure and House Affairs Committee began a study—transcript here—of his proposals. Unfortunately, that study wasn’t completed before the government was defeated and Parliament dissolved.

Mr. Chong is currently 123rd in the order of precedence for private members’ business, so it will be awhile yet before he can put a motion before the House again, but his proposals are apparently still lingering somewhere in the Procedure and House Affairs Committee’s review of the standing orders. Here’s how Joe Preston, the committee chair, explained it to me in an email this week.

During this current session of Parliament, we have had the opportunity to discuss some of Mr. Chong’s proposals further by incorporating his thoughts into our review of the standing orders. This study is still ongoing and the committee as a whole has agreed it will return to this discussion once the items at the forefront of our agenda are completed.

That review has been taking place in camera, so it is difficult to say where things stand, but it is apparently unlikely that the review will be completed before the House rises for the summer.

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