Prorogation of Parliament

I have been receiving enquiries from constituents about the recent prorogation of Parliament. In general I am finding that constituents are not sure about the meaning of prorogation nor understand its implications and recent media attention has only muddied the waters.

For those constituents who have written to me, and here for you who read this column, I believe the following will be helpful.

Sessions of Parliament since Confederation have been on average roughly a year in duration. The recently prorogued second session of the 40th Parliament brought to a close a reasonably successful year in which we introduced an important economic action plan, including a series of stimulus measures, to address the extraordinary economic circumstances brought on by the world-wide recession.

As a result, 2010 is shaping up to be a more optimistic year. However, how we proceed from this point will be critical to our continuing economic recovery and we must plan for it carefully.

Since the current economic conditions are fundamentally different than a year ago, the current prorogation will allow the Government to take stock of the current state of the nation and to set out a renewed economic and legislative agenda. This will include completing implementation of the Economic Action Plan, returning to balanced budgets once the economy has recovered, and building the economy of the future.

In this regard, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are using this time to go outside of Ottawa and visit the many regions across the country to consult with Canadians directly about our future economic direction. Likewise, the Prime Minister is encouraging the opposition parties to take the opportunity to advance their ideas.

The new agenda will be outlined in the Speech from the Throne which will open the 3rd session of the 40th Parliament on March 3rd. This is particularly important in a minority Parliament as it allows the government to ensure that its overall agenda has the confidence of the House before moving forward with specific legislation.

As for the business of government, let me assure you that whenever the House is not sitting, the business of government continues unchanged and your representation at the federal government level continues.

During this prorogation, both my offices in Kelowna-Lake Country and in Ottawa remain open to serve you. In fact, the current prorogation is providing me more time in the community (normally time I only have when I return from Ottawa every weekend) to meet directly with constituents as well as our local representatives from municipal and provincial levels of government and local organizations.

Just to close out this column I have included below a few facts on prorogation itself. Please have a read and get to know more about the routine parliamentary procedure that is causing such a fuss. I think you will see that it was an appropriate use of prorogation.

In this regard I am looking forward to a better year ahead. As always, if you need my assistance with any federally-related government matter or just want to drop me a line please do so at [email protected] or by calling my office at 470-5075. Here’s to a great 2010.

Sincerely,
Ron

What is Prorogation?

Prorogation is a Parliamentary procedure that was inherited from the British Parliamentary tradition. It has been used throughout the history of the Parliament of Canada.

Prorogation has been used in all but five Canadian Parliaments since Confederation. These five unique Parliaments were all short-lived minorities, the longest of which lasted just over a year.

A Parliament is established following a general election and lasts until the Parliament is officially dissolved. Upon dissolution, a general election follows to establish a new Parliament. Prorogation should not be confused with dissolution.

Prorogation does not end a Parliament it is the formal ending of a session of Parliament.

A session is one of the fundamental time periods into which a Parliament is divided. There may be any number of sessions in a Parliament, and there is no set length for a session although they generally last for approximately one year.

The current Parliament, which began following the October 2008 election, is the 40th Parliament. The recent prorogation ended the 2nd session of this Parliament. On March 3rd we will begin the 3rd session of the 40th Parliament.

Here is how the 2nd session of the 40th Parliament compares with history:

This is the 105th time that the Canadian Parliament has been prorogued.

The average number of days in a Parliamentary session is 211 the 2nd session of the 40th Parliament lasted 338 days.

The average number of sitting days for a session of Parliament has been 109 the 2nd session of the 40th Parliament sat for 128 days.

The Speech from the Throne will mark the beginning of the 3rd session of the 40th Parliament.

The average number of sessions per Parliament is 3.6. The number of sessions per Parliament has ranged from 1 to 7 (0 to 6 prorogations).
Of the first 39 Parliaments, 2 had 7 sessions, 4 had 6 sessions, 7 had 5 sessions, 9 had 4 sessions, 4 had 3 sessions, 8 had 2 sessions, and 5 had 1 session.

The shortest session of Parliament was the 6th session of the 18th Parliament: 1 sitting day.

The longest session of Parliament was the 1st session of the 32nd Parliament: 591 sitting days.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.