Committees and estimates : Financement politique et réglementation des campagnes

The principle of the royal recommendation, which precludes parliamentary consideration of expenditures not recommended by the Crown, is enshrined in the Constitution Act, 1867, which provides that: It shall not be lawful for the House of Commons to adopt or pass any Vote, Resolution, Address or Bill for the Appropriation of any Part of the Public Revenue, or of any Tax or Impost, to any Purpose th [...] Between 1867 and 1968, the main forum for the consideration of estimates was the House of Commons sitting as a Committee of Supply for the purpose of debating estimates and supply. [...] They marked the beginning of a phase of committee reform which continued with important expansions of committee powers in the 1980s, directed to enhancing the role of the backbench Member of Parliament and the broader effectiveness of Parliament in policy development as well as financial oversight roles. [...] Meetings on estimates during the previous Parliament continued to involve wide-ranging and relatively partisan exchanges over political priorities and the policy directions of departments, minimal attention to the substance of the estimates and, with certain notable exceptions, predictable votes in support of the estimates as proposed by the government. [...] While such changes have been extremely rare under majority government conditions, the acceptance by the government (and the House) of a reduction of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s Main Estimates that was recommended by the Government Operations and Estimates Committee in 2003 indicates that such changes need not raise issues of confidence, when the government accepts them.(18).