Legal Brief for January, 2020

1st Reading etc.

When the Alberta Legislature, or the House of Commons in Ottawa for the federal government, is considering bringing in a new law we hear about "Bill such and such" receiving 1st reading, or 2nd reading and so on.  These are such commonly used terms that we tend to assume that we have a good understanding of the process.  It is interesting however to delve into this topic a bit deeper, as there tends to be more to the story than just the headlines we read in the newspaper or hear about on the radio.  Since the provincial and federal systems are basically identical in Canada, any reference hereafter to "the Legislature" can be read as also applying to the House of Commons.

The first step for any proposed new law is to have it introduced to the Legislature for what is known as 1st reading.  The term "reading" comes to us from the early days of the British Parliament, when printing was either non-existent or not very common and when most people, including many Members of Parliament, could not read or write.  As a result, a proposed bill was literally read in its entirety by the Clerk in the British House of Commons.  Nowadays the Clerk reads only the title of the bill, as every member will have a printed copy of their own to read.  Once the bill's title has been read to the members of the Legislature, the 1st reading of the bill has been completed.

The next step is for the bill to be the subject of actual debate by the members of the Legislature.  This is the stage known as the 2nd reading.  The debate is controlled, hopefully, by the Speaker of the Legislature.  All parties are entitled to voice their opinions on the bill.  Once debate has been completed, the Speaker calls for a vote on the bill.  If it receives approval by a majority vote, the bill is then sent to a committee of the Legislature for review and analysis.  The committee can invite experts or government officials or members of the public to appear as witnesses to testify about the bill.  Once the committee has finished its work it issues a report back to the Legislature with a recommendation that it be accepted as is, or that it should have amendments or that it should not be proceeded with further.

Once the committee's report is tabled in the Legislature, the bill is then brought back before the Legislature for final review and debate.  This is the stage known as the 3rd reading.  This is the "make or break" stage for a bill.  If after the 3rd reading debate is completed the bill receives majority approval by a vote of the members of the Legislature, then the bill is guaranteed of becoming law.  If the 3rd reading vote approves the bill, it then goes to the Lieutenant Governor for what is known as royal assent (to the Governor General of Canada for the House of Commons).  This is required because Canada is what is known as a constitutional monarchy form of government, with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II the formal head of the government, represented by the Governor General at the federal level and the Lieutenant Governors in each of the provinces; and no laws can be enacted without the consent of Her Majesty.  In Canada the issuance of royal assent is a formality, as political convention makes the sovereign subject to the elected will of the public as represented by the Legislature.

One difference in the process between the provincial and federal levels is that after approval at the 3rd reading stage at the federal level, a bill then has to be approved by a majority vote in the Senate before it goes to the Governor General for royal assent.  With the Senate moving to having politically unaffiliated Senators in recent years it is becoming common for the Senate to be proposing amendments to bills presented to it by the House of Commons, and debate in the Senate on bills is becoming more extensive.  Since there is no equivalent body to the Senate in the provinces, once bills receive approval at the 3rd reading stage in the provinces they automatically then proceed to receive royal assent.

The final step in the process is the proclamation date for when the bill, now a formal law, is to take effect.  If no date is specified in the bill, then it takes effect immediately upon the granting of royal assent.  If however the government of the day wishes to give the public time to adjust their practices to conform with the new law it may specify that the law will take effect on a future date, such as one year after the fact.

If the government is in a majority situation in the Legislature, such as currently exists in Alberta, then it is basically guaranteed that whatever bills it introduces will pass through the three readings stages and become law.  However, in the case of a minority government such as now exists in the House of Commons after the October election, the 2nd and 3rd readings of every bill can become a dramatic showdown between the governing party and the opposition parties as to whether a bill will receive majority approval of the House or not.  The next couple of years at the federal level will no doubt provide many political dramas as federal bills make their way through the legislative process.