Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Special Senate Committee on Senate Modernization has the honour to present its

FIFTH REPORT

Your committee, which was authorized by the Senate on Friday, December 11, 2015, to consider methods to make the Senate more effective within the current constitutional framework, now reports as follows:

In its first report tabled on October 4, 2016, your committee examined the issue of independent senators and now recommends the following:

That the Senate direct the Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament and the Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration to draft amendments to the Rules of the Senate and the Senate Administrative Rules by 30 November 2016 respecting the following:

• Include a definition of “caucus” as follows:

A group of nine (9) or more senators, formed for parliamentary and/or political purposes, and where each senator has membership in not more than one such funded caucus at any one time; or

A group of nine (9) or more senators who are members of a political party registered under the Canada Elections Act.

• Replace the term “leader of a recognized party” with the term “leader or facilitator of a caucus or of a recognized party” wherever it appears in the Rules of the Senate and the Senate Administrative Rules.

• Each group of senators seeking recognition in the Senate have a leader or facilitator, or some other such individual who is charged with coordinating, directing or facilitating, as the case may be, the functioning of that group.

That the Senate direct the Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration to prepare amendments to the Senate Administrative Rules to provide all groups (caucuses) of senators with funding for a secretariat and research projects, regardless of whether the caucuses are organized with or without political affiliations.

Respectfully submitted,