Election clock ticking down on private members' business

Next week, Conservative MP Michael Chong finally gets the chance to bring his bill to rebalance the power dynamic between MPs and party leadersto a fullvote in the House of Commons.

It won't be precisely the bill he first envisioned it has alreadyundergone one revision, with more substantive changes expected at committee but it still has his name on it, andis expected tomake it throughsecond reading towin approval-in-principle from his Commons colleagues.

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Meanwhile, fellow Conservative backbencher Mark Adlerwillsoonlearn the fate of his bidto impose political disclosure requirements on staff who work for the independent agents of Parliament. That bill faces a final House votebefore being sentto the Senate.

Like Chong's Reform Act, Adler's bill is expected to garner the necessary support, butonly after it, too, underwent a major rewrite in which several of the more contentious provisionswereremoved, with Adler's support.

While both Chong and Adler seem resigned to watering down their bills, they can at least comfort themselves that their amended bills havea good chance of making it to the Senate floor.

But even thatmay notbe enough to ensurethey become law.

Unlike the Commons, the Senate has no separate legislative track to ferry private members' bills through on a set timeline no automatic limits on hours, or even days,of debate andno60-day deadline to report back from committee.

Chong and Adler both haveto findlike-minded senators to sponsor their bills, and even that may not be enough to guarantee a spot near the top of the relevant committee's to-do list.

The Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee, for instance, currently has four private members' bills in the queue. One Conservative caucus chair Guy Lauzon'sproposal to give victims first crack at money awarded to an offender who takes legal action against the government has been waiting for its moment in the spotlight since February.

Procedural limbo

Notall Senate committeeshavesuch a long list, but without a procedural conveyor belt to whisk private members bills, even those that make it through committee can end up stalled at third reading for months or, in some cases, years.

Take, for instance, New Democrat MP Joe Comartin's efforts to legalize sports betting, which first arrived in the Senate inMarch 2012,made it one stage short of Royal Assent by June 2013, butis nowmarooned at second reading after being sent back tothe Senate starting pointbyprorogation last fall.

Conservative MP Russ Hiebert's union spending disclosure bill isstuck in the same procedural limbo.

Even if Chong or Adlerdon't get their billsto the finish linebefore the 2015 election, they'll still havecome closer thanthe hundred-oddMPs waiting for their number to come up on the priority list.

At any given time, no more than 30 private members' billsor motions are allowed on the House agenda,with the orderdetermined bylottery.

Among thoseat the front of the currentqueue for a second-reading speaking slot is Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, whoseproposal toopen up the all-partyBoard of Internal Economy thatoversees MP and House spending will be one of 15 items added to the rotationjust before Thanksgiving.

Depending on how swiftly the Housemoves through thecurrent batch,Trudeau and his fellow MPscould theoretically shepherdtheirbills through tothird reading in the House butthe hope of making it much further before the 41st Parliament is dissolved is remote at best.

Why bother?

Despite the dismal odds of success, it's a good bet even the lowest MP on the list will go through the motions and introduce at least one bill or motion between now and next spring.

Why? First and perhaps foremost, because there's nothing preventing them from kickstarting discussion of their pet project before it makes it to the House floor.

Chong, for instance,released thetext of hisReform Actmonths before it came up for debate, andspent the interim consulting caucus colleagues, opposition MPs and Canadians at large on the pros and cons of his proposal, which led to those pre-second-readingamendments.

The Liberals, meanwhile, have cited Trudeau's bid to bring transparency to the Board of Internal Economy every time the New Democrats denounce them for failing to back their call for the board to meet in public.

It may not be quite as satisfying as seeing the Governor General sign off on a bill bearing your name, but it's hard to see how that is more frustrating than manoeuvring a bill all the way through the Commons only to have it get lost in the Senate shuffle.

Plus, presuming an MP is re-elected, there's nothing stopping them from putting it right back on the Order Paper.