BILL NO. 133
(as introduced)
3rd Session, 63rd General Assembly
Nova Scotia
70 Elizabeth II, 2021
Private Member's Bill
Question Period Act
Alana Paon
Cape Breton–Richmond
First Reading: April 19, 2021
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
Explanatory Note
This Bill provides that
(a) where a member or caucus, in asking oral questions of ministers, exceeds the time provided, the member or caucus forfeits the opportunity to ask a question; and
(b) where a Minister exceeds the time allowed for answering a question, the extra time is added to extend question period.
An Act to Amend the Rules and Forms of Procedure
of the House of Assembly
Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 This Act may be cited as the Question Period Act.
2 The Rules and Forms of Procedure of the House of Assembly are amended by adding immediately after Rule 31 the following Rules:
- 31A (1) Where a member or, where the member is a member of a caucus of a recognized party, the caucus in asking ORAL QUESTIONS PUT BY MEMBERS TO MINISTERS, including supplementary questions, exceeds the period of time provided for asking questions by a cumulative time of more than forty-five seconds, that member or caucus forfeits the member's or caucus's next opportunity to ask a question.
(2) A member or caucus may forfeit multiple opportunities to ask a question if the member or caucus exceeds the cumulative forty-five second time period multiple times in a day.
31B (1) The Clerk shall keep a record of the periods of time taken by Ministers in answering oral questions under Rule 31.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of Rule 31, where the period of time taken by a Minister in answering a question exceeds that provided for making the answer, the Speaker shall extend ORAL QUESTIONS PUT BY MEMBERS TO MINISTERS by an amount of time equal to the cumulative time by which such periods were exceeded that day.
This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2021 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created April 19, 2021. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.
