[ Progress of Bills . . . ]

Ten o'clock a.m.

Prayers by Mr. Symons.

The House proceeded to "Orders of the Day."

Bill (No. 51) intituled Nisga'a Final Agreement Act was committed.

In Committee, the Chair made the following remarks:

Today we are embarking on the Committee Stage of Bill No. 51, a Bill to approve and give effect to the final agreement made between the Nisga'a, the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia. I wish to take this opportunity, in light of the unique form of the Bill, to comment on the process to be used in Committee debate.

The Bill would approve the final agreement which is attached as a Schedule and enacts ancillary legislation to conform with various aspects of the agreement. Similar types of bills have been passed at various times by the Canadian Parliament (the Canada-USA Free Trade Agreement 1988) and by the U.K. Parliament (the Irish Free State Constitution Bill 1922, the Ottawa Agreements Bill 1932, the British North America Act 1949, the Canada Act 1982). In all of these instances, the Committee Chair had to consider the appropriate format and process for amendments to the Bill.

It is a Crown prerogative to make agreements. The role of Parliament is to debate, accept, reject or amend the Bill but, subject to technical amendments, it cannot amend the Agreement.

On a proposed motion to amend the Agreement during the Free-Trade Agreement debate in the Canadian House of Commons in 1988, the Speaker ruled as follows:

"I wish to remind the Member that treaty-making power is within the prerogative of the Crown and, therefore, the Agreement itself cannot be amended."

In Beauchesne's, 5th edition, citation 778, it is stated:

"When a bill is introduced to give effect to an Agreement and the Agreement is scheduled to the bill as a completed document, amendments cannot be made to the schedule. An amendment to the clauses of the bill for the purpose of withholding legislative effect from the document contained in the schedule is in order; also as are amendments to those clauses which deal with matters not determined by the document contained in the schedule."

In the case at hand, the Chair will not accept amendments to the Schedule other than purely technical amendments to ensure the Schedule contains the correct text. The Chair will not accept amendments to sections of the Bill which have the effect of amending the Schedule, but will accept amendments to sections of the Bill that are relevant and otherwise in order.

It seems to the Chair that section 3 of the Bill embodies the operative portion of the Bill and accordingly, by way of example, amendments which would have the effect of withholding legislative effect might, if otherwise in order, be moved to that section.

It is to be remembered that the committee stage of a Bill does not provide an opportunity to recanvass all the arguments which were applicable at second reading where the principle of the Bill was under debate. During committee stage, debate must be strictly confined to the section which is before the Committee, likewise, debate on proposed amendments must be strictly relevant to the amendment as proposed. The Agreement, while not amendable, except as provided above, will be open to debate when the Schedule is called, subject to the observations made with respect to section 3.

Bill Hartley, Deputy Speaker

The Committee rose, reported progress and asked leave to sit again.

Bill to be considered at the next sitting.

And then the House adjourned at 11.49 a.m.