Previous Sittings

Order Paper and Notice Paper

Previous Sittings

Journals of the Senate

Previous Sittings

Debates of the Senate (Hansard)

47 Elizabeth II, A.D. 1998, Canada

Journals of the Senate

Issue 67 - Appendix

Wednesday, June 3, 1998
1:30 p.m.

The Honourable Gildas L. Molgat, Speaker

Schedule I

Senators Attendance Policy

Purpose

1. This policy provides for the recording of attendance of Senators during parliamentary sessions:

(a) to document each Senator's compliance with the attendance requirement set out in subsection 31(1) of the Constitution Act, 1867;

(b) to satisfy the requirement in subsection 65(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act that each Senator furnish a signed monthly statement of attendance for purposes of remuneration; and

PART I: SENATORS ATTENDANCE REGISTER

Register

2. (1) The Clerk of the Senate shall keep a Senators Attendance Register.

Contents

(2) For months in which the Senate is in session, the Register displays the information concerning the attendance of each Senator that must be kept for the purposes of this policy, in the form set out in Schedule "A".

"Attendance to Business"

(3) The column in the Register entitled "Attendance to Business" shall reflect attendance by Senators to the activities set out in subsection 8(2) that are to be published in the Journals of the Senate.

"Public Business"

(4) The column in the Register entitled "Public Business" shall reflect attendance by Senators to all public or official business not reflected in the Attendance to Business column.

Maintenance

3. (1) The Clerk of the Senate is charged with administering this policy and the Senate Administration is charged with maintaining the Register under the direction of the Clerk.

Primary sources of information

(2) The attendance of Senators in the Senate and in committees to be recorded in the Register will be compiled from the Journals of the Senate, the Minutes of Proceedings of committees and written notices received from Senators.

Additional information

(3) Senators are required to notify the Clerk of the Senate, in writing, of every entry to be made in the Register other than for attendance in the Senate or at committee meetings.

Information deadline

(4) Senators are encouraged to give notice of the information required under subsection (1) no later than the last day of the month, and must provide the information no later than the deadline for filing their signed statement of attendance.

Review of notices

(5) Notices given to the Clerk under subsection (1) are available to the Standing Committee on Privileges, Standing Rules and Orders and the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration.

Notices of public or official business

4. (1) A notice of a day of public business or official business must set out the fact that the Senator was on public or official business, the nature of the business and the date and location where such business was performed.

Parliamentary associations

(2) For the purposes of this policy, participation in the work of a recognized parliamentary association is official business.

Friendship groups

(3) For the purposes of this policy, participation in the work of a parliamentary friendship group is public business but not official business.

Illness

5. (1) A notice of a day of illness must set out the fact that the Senator's failure to attend in the Senate was by reason of illness and that the absence was due to that illness and was unavoidable.

Medical certificates

For each consecutive sitting day in the session beyond six to be registered as a day of illness, a medical certificate must be submitted to the Clerk.

Renewals

(3) A medical certificate may serve for one or more consecutive sitting days within a period of up to three calendar months, after which it must be renewed.

Certificate a prerequisite

(4) A day of illness for which a medical certificate is required may only be registered when the medical certificate has been received.

Confidentiality

(5) The contents of a medical certificate given to the Clerk under subsection (2) are confidential but are available to the Standing Committee on Privileges, Standing Rules and Orders and the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration.

Confirmation of receipt

(6) The Clerk may, upon request, publicly confirm the fact that a medical certificate has been received.

Leave days

6. The twenty-one leave days provided to Senators by subsection 57(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act are recognized as having been provided primarily for the following needs:

(a) bereavement leave;

(b) leave for family-related matters, including illness; and

Public document

7. The Register is a public document available for viewing during ordinary office hours.

PART II: JOURNALS OF THE SENATE

Publication in the Journals

8. (1) The attendance to business of Senators shall be published on a daily basis in the Journals of the Senate, in the form set out in Schedule "B".

Attendance to Business

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), "attendance to business" means

(a) attendance at a sitting of the Senate;

(b) attendance at a meeting of a Senate committee, authorized by the Senate to sit within the National Capital Region during the sitting of the Senate or to sit or be on travel status outside the National Capital Region on that day;

(c) participation in a delegation of a recognized parliamentary association conducting its business outside the National Capital Region on a sitting day or on travel status for that day; or

(d) attendance to the official business set out in subsection (3) outside the National Capital Region on a sitting day, or being on travel status for that business that day.

Definition

(3) For the purposes of being included in attendance to business under paragraph 2(d), "official business" means business that a Senator conducts that could only have been conducted on a sitting day, that required the Senator to be absent from the sitting and that

(a) was authorized by the Senate or a committee of the Senate, or

(b) was conducted pursuant to a request in writing from a federal Minister of the Crown that the Senator represent the Government of Canada.

Immediate information for the Journals

(4) In order to be recorded in the first print run of the Journals of the Senate, written notice that a Senator has attended to business of a kind described in paragraphs (2) (c) or (d) on a sitting day must be received from the Senator or from an officer assigned to the delegation no later than 3:00 a.m. Ottawa time the following day.

Corrections to the Journals

(5) Where an error is made in the Journals of the Senate in recording the attendance to business of a Senator, either because the Administration was not notified on time under subsection (4) or for any other reason, the attendance to business of the Senator will be entered in the Register upon notice received and the correction to the Journals of the Senate will be made in the bound volume for the session.

PART III: MISCELLANEOUS

Draft report

9. (1) The Clerk will provide Senators with a draft copy of the monthly statement of attendance early in the next month.

Deadline for corrections

(2) Senators must advise the Administration of errors or omissions within two weeks of receiving the monthly statement.

Obligatory signed copy

(3) Senators are required to provide the Administration with a signed copy of their monthly statement no later than two weeks after receiving it or, where they have submitted corrections, the corrected copy of it.

Addition to Register

(4) The signed copy of the monthly statement is added to the Senators Attendance Register and becomes part of the public document.

Enforcement of filing requirement

The Clerk will advise the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration in the event that a Senator does not file a signed statement on time.

Parliamentary Privilege

10. Nothing in this policy constitutes a waiver of the privileges, immunities or powers of the Senate or of any Senator, and, in particular, nothing herein

(a) derogates from the right of the Senate to the attendance of Senators or the right of a Senator to attend to a sitting of the Senate, or

(b) authorizes an outside authority to oblige a Senator to attend elsewhere while the Senate is in session.

Schedule "A" / Annexe "A"
Senators Attendance Register / Registre des présences des sénateurs
Month / mois 1998

Name of Senator / Nom du Sénateur:

Sittings / Séances	Attendance to Business / Participation aux travaux	Public Business / Engagement public	Unavoidable absence due to Illness / Absence justifiée pour cause de maladie	Committee Meetings Attended / Présence aux réunions des comités
1.	.	.	.	.
2.	.	.	.	.
3.	.	.	.	.
4.	.	.	.	.
5.	.	.	.	.
6.	.	.	.	.
7.	.	.	.	.
8.	.	.	.	.
9.	.	.	.	.
10.	.	.	.	.
11.	.	.	.	.
12.	.	.	.	.
13.	.	.	.	.
14.	.	.	.	.
15.	.	.	.	.
16.	.	.	.	.
17.	.	.	.	.
18.	.	.	.	.
19.	.	.	.	.
20.	.	.	.	.
21.	.	.	.	.
22.	.	.	.	.
23.	.	.	.	.
24.	.	.	.	.
25.	.	.	.	.
26.	.	.	.	.
27.	.	.	.	.
28.	.	.	.	.
29.	.	.	.	.
30.	.	.	.	.
31.	.	.	.	.
TOTAL:	.	.	.	.

Balance of 21 leave days/ Solde des 21 jours non comptés: __ days / jours

Attest / Attesté: _______________________________________________________________
The Honourable / L'honorable

Schedule "B" / Annexe "B"
PageSenate Journals / Journaux du Sénat Date

The Members convened were:

The Honourable Senators

Adams Andreychuk Angus Atkins Austin Bacon Balfour Beaudoin Bernston Bolduc Bosa Bryden Buchanan Butts Callbeck Carney Carstairs Chalifoux Cochrane Cogger Cohen Comeau Cook Cools Corbin De Bané DeWare Di Nino Doody Eyton Fairbairn Ferretti Barth Fitzpatrick Forest Forrestall Gauthier Ghitter Gigantès Grafstein Graham Grimard Gustafson Hays Hébert Hervieux-Payette Jessiman Johnson Johnstone Joyal Kelleher Kelly Kenny Keon Kinsella Kirby Kolber Lavoie-Roux Lawson LeBreton Lewis Losier-Cool Lucier Lynch-Staunton Maheu Meighen Mercier Milne Molgat Moore Murray Nolin Oliver Pearson Pépin Perrault Phillips Pitfield Poulin Prud'homme Rivest Roberge Robertson Robichaud Robichaud Rompkey Rossiter St. Germain Simard Sparrow Spivak Stewart Stollery Stratton Taylor Tkachuk Watt Whelan Wood

The Members in attendance to
business were:

The Honourable Senators

*Sample of Proposed Journal Entry*

SCHEDULE II

JUS-600444
(SOR/DORS)

The Senate, pursuant to section 59 of the Parliament of Canada Act, hereby makes the annexed Senate Sessional Allowance (Deductions for Non-attendance) Regulations.

JUS-600444
(SOR/DORS)

SENATE SESSIONAL ALLOWANCE (DEDUCTIONS FOR NON-ATTENDANCE) REGULATIONS

GENERAL

1. The deduction to be made from the sessional allowance of a senator under subsection 57(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act is increased to $190 per day for every sitting day beyond twenty-one on which the senator does not attend a sitting of the Senate.

COMING INTO FORCE

2. These Regulations come into force on July 1, 1998.

Journals of the Senate

47 Elizabeth II, A.D. 1998, Canada

Journals of the Senate

Issue 67 - Appendix

Wednesday, June 3, 19981:30 p.m.

The Honourable Gildas L. Molgat, Speaker

Wednesday, June 3, 1998
1:30 p.m.