Greetings All. On Friday past the federal government moved the following motion to bring forward unfinished business from the last Session of Parliament. "That during the first thirty sitting days of the present session of Parliament, whenever a Minister of the Crown, when proposing a motion for first reading of a public bill, states that the said bill is in the same form as a Government bill in the previous session, if the Speaker is satisfied that the said bill is in the same form as the House of Commons had agreed to at prorogation, notwithstanding Standing Order 71, the said bill shall be deemed in the current session to have been considered and approved at all stages completed at the time of prorogation of the previous session." This motion has been subject of some very vigorous debate on both sides of the question. During this debate, Government House Leader Jacques Saada gave examples of Bills the government would bring forward. They included Bills C-49, C-34, C-17, C-20, C-23, and C-57. On the other hand, Conservative Garry Breitkreuz made a motion to amend the main motion to exclude a number of Bills from being able to be brought forward. Those Bills included C-7, C-19, C-20, C-22, C-26, C-38, C-13, C-34, C-35, and C-36. MP Rob Merrifield made a further motion to add C-49 to the list of Bills that would be excluded by the motion to amend. By way of explanation of the motion Mr. Saada stated: "The motion will apply solely to bills that have been introduced and at least referred to committee, either before or after second reading. .......... During the first 30 sitting days of the new session, any minister who introduces a bill identical to a bill in the old session, and which at least had been referred to a committee, will have the right to request that the new bill be reinstated to the stage at which it had progressed at the time of prorogation. The procedure does not oblige a minister to reintroduce a bill. It merely gives them a new right to do so during a limited period at the beginning of the session." Elsewhere he indicated that "bills that had only been introduced, but not yet studied in committee during the previous session, ...... can be reintroduced during the present session." So far there has been no mention of Bill S-13. Although it passed without amendment in the Senate, it had not yet been referred to committee in the House of Commons. It had, by a verbal vote of those in chambers, passed second reading and was referred to committee. However, in accordance with House rules, more than six members rose during the verbal vote. As such a recorded vote of all Members of the House was required for second reading and referral to committee. That recorded vote did not take place before the Session was proroqued. Debate on the motion referred to above has not yet concluded and to date it has not been passed, although with the Liberal majority in the House it seems unlikely that it will be defeated. It remains to be seen if Bill S-13 will be brought forward. As I have indicated before, only time will tell. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted.