I am now prepared to rule on the matter raised by the hon. member for Delta, on December 13 and December 15, 1994 regarding the response and supplementary response of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to Order Paper Question No. 82. I would also like to thank the hon. member for his very detailed written submission dated February 1, 1995 which served to clarify his remarks in the House.
I wish to state at the outset that having reviewed all that was said in the House as well as the answers to the question printed in the debate, I remain of the view and must reiterate that this is not a prima facie case of privilege.
Before explaining my decision, I would like to draw members' attention to citations 31(1) and 31(2) in Beauchesne's Sixth Edition, which state:
(1) A dispute arising between two members, as to allegations of facts, does not fulfil the conditions of parliamentary privilege; and
(2) The failure of a minister to answer a question may not be raised as a question of privilege.
Although I have not found a prima facie case of privilege, I want to comment on this matter for the benefit of the hon. member and of the House. Beauchesne's sixth edition, citation 403 states in part:
The House recognizes two broad categories of questions-the oral question, which the Standing Orders recognize as dealing with matters of urgency, and the written question, which is designed to seek detailed information from the Ministry.
I emphasize the last phrase because the purpose of the written question should be to seek and receive precise, detailed answers to carefully worded questions.
In his representation the hon. member for Delta stated that members expect the responses to Order Paper questions to be accurate and well reasoned. He noted that the question he submitted was one requiring detailed study by the government and was one for which he wanted a detailed answer. He also argued that it is incumbent upon the government to provide not only the questioner but the House with accurate information. In this the hon. member is absolutely correct.
The wording of Standing Order 39 itself gives us further information about the nature of this type of question. It reads, in part, that members may put questions to the ministry "-but in putting any such question or in replying to the same no argument or opinion is to be offered, nor any facts stated, except so far as may be necessary to explain the same; and in answering any such question the matter to which the same refers shall not be debated." Because questions on the Order Paper are not meant as a vehicle for debate, the rule expressly prohibits the inclusion of opinion or argument, the very things which lead to debate.
The Clerk of the House, acting on behalf of the Speaker, has the full authority to ensure that questions placed on the Notice Paper are coherent and concise, in accordance with practices of the House.
As Speaker Fraser noted in a ruling on October 2, 1991 at page 3147 of the Debates , questions are scrutinized as to the correctness of their form and content before they are placed on the Notice Paper. To aid members as well as the Clerk and his staff in ensuring that questions for the Order Paper are properly formulated, citation 428 of Beauchesne's sixth edition lays down an extensive list of restrictions applicable to written questions. It is, however, incumbent upon the members submitting a question for the Notice Paper to ensure that it is formulated carefully enough to elicit the precise information sought. There are, however, no similar provisions in the Standing Orders for the Speaker to review government responses to questions posed.
In the present case we are dealing with a matter of the interpretation of the wording of a question placed on the Order Paper. The hon. member for Delta anticipated a particular reply which was not the reply tabled in the name of the hon. minister. The member contends that the written response provides erroneous information. He argues that he has found discrepancies between the minister's response and information contained in documents he has obtained through the Access to Information Act. For his part the hon. minister maintains that every effort has been made to answer the question posed by the hon. member for Delta.
I remind all hon. members that we have a tradition that what is said in the House or placed on record in the House is accepted as true. My predecessor, Speaker Jeanne Sauvé, phrased it aptly when on February 28, 1983 at page 23278 of the Debates she stated that it is not the role of the Chair ``to determine whether or not the contents of documents tabled in the House are accurate''.
Joseph Maingot in his book Parliamentary Privilege in Canada , at page 199, summarizes well the situation faced by the Speaker in such circumstances. He writes that before the Speaker can find a prima facie case of privilege in a situation where there is a dispute about facts, there must be ``-an admission by someone in authority, such as a minister of the crown or an officer of a department, an instrument of government policy, or a government agency, either that a member of the House of Commons was intentionally misled or an admission of facts that lead naturally to the conclusion that a member was intentionally misled, and a direct relationship between the misleading information and a proceeding in Parliament.''
This is not the first time there have been disputes over replies to Order Paper questions or over the content of documents tabled by the ministry. For example, I refer hon. members to three rulings, the first on February 28, 1983 at pages 23278-9 of the Debates ; the second on February 21, 1990 at page 8618; the third on May 15, 1991 at page 100. I must point out, however, that in none of these cases was the matter found to be prima facie. As Speaker Fraser noted in the May 15, 1991 ruling:
The hon. member has raised an issue which is not an unusual kind of issue to raise. The hon. member is not satisfied with the response given. The difficulty that is always with the Chair in these cases is that there are often very great differences of interpretation on answers given. It is not a question of privilege, it is a question of disagreement over certain facts and answers that were given.
This precedent holds true in the case now before us.
Questions on the Order Paper are a very important tool in the hands of members. As I stated earlier, their purpose should be to seek through a precise, detailed formulation precise, detailed information that will enable members to carry on their work. It is incumbent upon all those involved on both sides of the process-the members formulating the questions, House officials reviewing those formulations, the individuals drafting the replies and the ministers of the crown tabling those replies in the
House-to ensure that every care is taken so that these exchanges remain as fruitful and as useful as possible.
I want to thank the hon. members who intervened in this matter.