Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Recorded division

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 10:51am - 0 Comments

The actual text that will be put before the House this evening at approximately 5:30pm is as follows.

The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security has the honour to present its second report.

In accordance with its Order of Reference of Wednesday, March 3, 2010, your Committee has considered Bill C-391, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act (repeal of long-gun registry), and agreed on Thursday, June 3, 2010, to report the following:

That this Committee, pursuant to Standing Order 97.1 (1), recommends that the House of Commons do not proceed further with Bill C-391, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act (repeal of long-gun registry), because the Committee has heard sufficient testimony that the bill will dismantle a tool that promotes and enhances public security and the safety of Canadian police officers.

There are a total of 304 votes in play—308 seats minus three vacancies and the Speaker, who only votes in the event of a tie. At our last count, there were 153 MPs committed to defeating C-391, 150 MPs committed to seeing it passed. That breaks down, by our math, as follows.

Against C-391: 75 Liberals, 48 Bloc Quebecois, 30 New Democrats.

In favour of C-391: 143 Conservatives, five New Democrats, two independents.

In terms of the pivotal New Democrat dozen—the 12 NDP MPs who voted in favour of C-391 on second reading—six have declared a change in intent (Allen, Angus, Gravelle, Hughes, Stoffer and Thibeault) and five have said they will vote as in the past (Bevington, Cullen, Hyer, Maloway and Rafferty). Only Niki Ashton, who has voted in favour of C-391 in the past, has so far not stated which way she will go this time.

If all that holds—without any unforeseen absences, abstentions or last minutes changes of heart—the recommendation of the standing committee on public safety and national security will be agreed to by the House of Commons and C-391, the bill that would repeal the long-gun registry, will cease to proceed.

Tags: Bill C-391, C-391, gun control, gun registry, house of commons, long gun registry, Parliament

More by Aaron Wherry

Style

Isn't this the Liberal motion to stop C-391 from coming to a vote? I thought the vote count showed that would be voted down. C-391 would then come forward and also be defeated.

AaronWherry

Yes, this is essentially that motion (it's not technically a Liberal motion, it's a report of a committee). The count I've been keeping has been of those who oppose C-391 and those who support C-391.

Style

Thanks. Haven't some NDP said they'll oppose this motion but also oppose C-391? So, this could be voted down but the NDP motion and the vote on C-391 would still come forward, with at least C-391 being defeated.

John D

What would be the precedent if the Speaker has to vote? Would he vote No to allow debate on the Bill to continue, or Yes to allow the committee recommendation to stand?

AaronWherry

See the link at "the event of a tie" for a guess.

John D

Hyperlinks! Schooled by the internet again!

AaronWherry

It will be sometime later—likely weeks from now.

john g

Really? You mean today's vote, which has been hyped for months, isn't it? If C391 is allowed to proceed after today's vote we're going to have weeks more lead up to yet another vote?

Sigh.

Mike T.

I think it could be mischevious to be able to force up the reading of a bill simply by making a motion to get rid of it.

Marion

It is part of the normal process for the committee to send back an opinion at what is called "report stage". It's not unusual for Private Member's Bills to come back with a recommendation that the bill be abandoned.

Other options are that the bill come back with amendmends made at committee, and in some cases, all clauses are deleted and an empty bill is sent back to the House.
Marion

Technically, if the bill survives today, it's put at the bottom of the Order of Precedence and it would have its first hour of debate in 30 sitting days. Then the second hour would be 30 sitting days after that and the vote would be the Wednesday following.

However, many times MPs are willing to trade their bills up or down the calendar, so if they think it's an important issue, it could be voted on in about a month.