Committee report; amendments

<div class="DecisionMain" role="main"> <p class="decision-chapter">Routine Proceedings / Motions</p> <p class="d-DecisionDate"> <time>April 1, 1969</time> </p> <p class="e-Debates">Journals <a href="https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.HOC_2801_115_01/822">p. 880</a></p> <p class="e-Debates">Debates <a href="https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2801_07/505?r=0&amp;s=1">p. 7385</a></p> <div> <h2 class="f-ContextResoEdNotePostscriptTitle">Background</h2> </div> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">During debate on the motion for concurrence in the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications, Mr. Allmand (Notre-Dame­de-Grâce) moved an amendment that the report be not now concurred in but that it be recommitted to the committee with an instruction to delete a paragraph from the report. Subsequently, Mr. Knowles (Winnipeg North Centre) rose on a point of order to challenge the form of the amendment. He claimed that the House is not allowed "to tell the committee precisely what to do. All that the House has the right to do is to give the committee power to make any change it wishes."</p> <h2 class="f-ContextResoEdNotePostscriptTitle">Issue</h2> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">Can an amendment to a concurrence motion instruct a committee to delete a paragraph of its report?</p> <h2 class="f-ContextResoEdNotePostscriptTitle">Decision</h2> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">Yes. The amendment is in order.</p> <h2 class="f-ContextResoEdNotePostscriptTitle">Reasons given by the Deputy Speaker</h2> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">According to a previous ruling, when a motion is made for the adoption of a report of a committee, it is competent for the House to adopt it, reject it or refer it back to the committee with or without instructions. This decision is supported by the authorities which allow that an instruction can be made "to amend [the report] in any particular".</p> <h2 class="f-ContextResoEdNotePostscriptTitle">Sources cited</h2> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">Journals, May 22, 1919, <a href="https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.HOC_1302_55_01/272">pp. 293-4</a>.</p> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">Beauchesne, 3rd ed., pp. 689-90; 4th ed., p. 252, c. 326.</p> <h2 class="f-ContextResoEdNotePostscriptTitle">References</h2> <p class="g-contextResoEdNotePostscript">Debates, April 1, 1969, <a href="https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2801_07/499">pp. 7379-85</a>.</p> </div>