Question Period, known officially as
Oral
Questions ( ) occurs each sitting day in the
Canadian House of Commons.
According to the
House of
Commons Compendium, “The primary purpose of Question Period is
to seek information from the Government and to call it to account
for its actions.”
History
The first oral question occurred during the
1st Canadian Parliament, before
rules had been established providing for formal questions.
According to the record of debates for
November 29,
1867, a
question was posed to Chairman of the Printing Committee before
Orders of the Day were called.
In the absence of formal rules, the
Speaker of the House
of Commons of Canada exerted great control over form, nature,
and admissibility of questions. The first codification of formal
rules to govern Question Period occurred in April
1964, and subsequent rule changes have been adopted;
however, the opinion of the Speaker carries the most weight, as the
actions of the Speaker set precedents when a new
Point of Order or questions arises about
practices during Question Period.
For a detailed discussion, see
Robert
Marleau and
Camille
Montpetit’s
House of Commons
Procedure and Practice.
Current practice
Question Period lasts 45 minutes pursuant to Standing Order 30(5),
beginning no later than 2:15 P.M. or 11:15 AM, as the case may be.
Typically, 2:15 p.m. is the start time for Question Period Monday
through Thursday, with Question Period starting at 11:15 on
Fridays. On Wednesday, Question Period starts slightly after 2:15
due to the 2:00pm singing of the National Anthem,
O Canada.
Questions may be posed to either the
Prime Minister, or any
Minister of the
Cabinet of Canada, who will answer the
question unless the Speaker rejects the question under established
rules or accepted custom. For example, although it is not codified,
questions on current legal matters before the courts are not
acceptable questions.
Format
At the start of a typical Question Period, the Speaker recognizes
the
Leader of the
Opposition to ask the lead question. It is possible for the
question to be asked by a designee of the Leader of the Opposition,
yet this
Member of Parliament
must be a member of the
Official Opposition.
Following the answer to the lead question, the lead questioner has
two more questions permitted, referred to as supplementary
questions. These questions may be asked by the same Member of
Parliament to follow up on the answer provided to the lead
question, or they may be given to another member of the Official
Opposition.
When the Official Opposition has exhausted its initial three
questions, the lead questioners of the other officially-recognized
opposition parties are permitted
an initial question and one supplementary question each.
Given the composition of the current
40th Canadian Parliament, once
Official Opposition is finished, the next question comes from the
Bloc Québécois, and is
typically asked by party leader
Gilles
Duceppe. To complete the initial party rotation of questions,
the
New Democratic Party is
also permitted a question and a supplemental, usually delivered by
party leader
Jack Layton.
Throughout the remainder of Question Period, Members of officially
recognized parties ask questions in rotation. Members of the
governing party may occasionally pose a question to one of their
own, and although rare, independent Members may also be recognized
to ask questions.
Rules
Question Period has a reputation for being quite chaotic due to the
commonplace cat-calling and jeering from non-participating MPs, but
notwithstanding the heckling, Question Period is actually
tightly-regulated. Parties are only allowed to ask a predetermined
number of questions based on the size of their
caucus, and must ask their questions in a specific
order, predetermined by their
party
leadership for that day on a list given to the Speaker.
Questions and responses are all timed as well, in order to prevent
excessive speeches, and the Speaker of the House has the ability to
cut the microphones of members speaking after the specified time
has elapsed. The parties may negotiate a maximum time limit for
each question and answer; currently this limit is 35 seconds for
each.
As with other parliamentary procedures in the House, members of
opposition parties must place questions through the Speaker,
addressing them only indirectly to the minister responsible for the
issue at hand. Furthermore, there is no obligation for the minister
addressed in the question to actually respond, and often the
minister's
parliamentary
secretary or a fellow cabinet member will rise to answer the
question. This is particularly true when the minister addressed is
not actually present in the House during Question Period, and
arguably occurs most often when the Prime Minister is addressed on
a specific issue for which one of his ministers has more
information.
Bilingual nature
Reflecting the nature of
Bilingualism in Canada, Question
Period is bilingual. Questions may be posed in either
English or
French and responses may be in either
official language. Although
English was the primary language in parliament in its early days,
French is now spoken somewhat more than English. This is likely
because of improved respect for official bilingualism among most
federal parties and a policy to speak only French on the part of
the Quebec-based Bloc Québécois.
Simultaneous interpretation is
provided on English and French broadcasts of Question Period, on
many news networks, as well as the
Cable Public
Affairs Channel . Transcripts of Question Period are published
in both official languages in the Canadian
Hansard, as with any other proceedings in the House
of Commons and its committees.
There is no guarantee that the answer will be provided in the same
language as the question, and a Member relying on the simultaneous
interpretation may respond to something differing slightly from the
actual question asked. For the most part, bilingual Members respond
to the question in the language in which it was asked.
The
simultaneous translation provided to Members in the Chamber as well
as visitors in the gallery is also available over the internet on
either the website of the Parliament of Canada
, or through services such as CPAC.
Additional notes
Each of the
provincial
legislatures also conducts its own form of question period.
Question
Period in Canada
is similar
to the Prime Minister's
Questions practice of the Parliament of
the United Kingdom
; however it is important to note that the Canadian
version occurs daily as opposed to weekly, and that questions may
be asked to any cabinet member, not just the Prime
Minister.
See also
References
-
http://www.parl.gc.ca/compendium/web-content/c_d_principlesguidelinesoralquestions-e.htm
-
http://www.parl.gc.ca/MarleauMontpetit/DocumentViewer.aspx?DocId=1001&Sec=Ch11&Seq=4&Lang=E&Print=2
-
http://www.parl.gc.ca/compendium/web-content/c_d_questionperiod-e.htm
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