The House is currently on break, so instead of a summary we’ll be looking at just what a Private Member’s Bill is!
What are they?
So first up, just what is a Private Member’s Bill? A Private Member’s Bill is any Bill that isn’t proposed by a Minister. Ministers are only allowed to propose Government Bills, so you won’t see any Private Member’s Bills from them.
It’s easy enough to spot the two, as a Government Bill will have a number between 1 and 200, while Private Members’ Bills (and Senate Public Bills) are numbered from 201 to 1000.
How do they work?
A Private Member’s Bill starts with an MP working with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel to write the Bill. The counsel will help ensure the Bill is formatted properly, as well as making sure any laws that might affect the Bill’s function are accounted for. (You wouldn’t want to make changes to the Labour Code if it ends up contradicting the Criminal Code, need to make sure everything lines up properly).
Once a Bill has been drafted the MP sponsoring it submits notice that they want to introduce it, then 48 hours later it can be introduced to the House. Introducing a Bill is its First Reading, and no votes or amendments are held at that time. The name of the Bill is read and that’s it. After being introduced the Bill will be set aside to wait to be added to the Order of Precedence, at which point it will go for its Second Reading and proceed through the legislative process.
Limitations
There’s only a handful of limitations on what a Private Member’s Bill can do. First of all, it can’t be similar to another Bill that’s already been proposed. The Speaker’s the one to decide if it’s substantially the same as another Bill, and can refuse the notice if it is. Worth noting is that at the moment there’s nothing that says a Private Member’s Bill can’t be similar to a Government Bill. Note that the House can only make a decision “on any given matter” once per session, so if a Private Member’s Bill were to be completed before a similar Government Bill it would block the Government Bill from proceeding.
The more significant limitations on a Private Member’s Bill are that they aren’t allowed to require government spending, nor are they allowed to increase taxes. Both of those are things that sit firmly in the domain of the Crown.
There’s a small exception for increasing government spending though. A Private Member’s Bill is allowed to require spending from the government if it can receive a Royal Recommendation before it reaches its Third Reading. Royal Recommendation is a request from a Minister to the Governor General to allow the government to spend money on something. If the sponsor of a Private Member’s Bill can get a Minister to request a Royal Recommendation then the Bill can proceed. If they can’t then the Bill will automatically fail when it reaches its Third Reading. It’s up to the Speaker to decide if a Bill requires Royal Recommendation when the Bill is introduced.
Worth noting is that though a Private Member’s Bill can’t increase taxes it is allowed to lower them or create exemptions to them. C-234 is a good example of this, creating new exemptions to the Carbon Tax.