Changes to the Senate
Proposal to Change the Senate of Canada
Whatever the original purpose and intent of the Senate as conceived at the time of Confederation, that role is now unclear, and therefore a new vision and a new definition of the duties of the Senate is in order.
Duties of the Senate
The New Senate should have as its primary roles:
1. Protector of our Canadian Heritage and Culture
(including the protection of our historical heritage, both French and English, and that of our aboriginal peoples)
2. To serve as the Conscience of the Government of Canada
(including the duty to hold hearings across the country to determine the will of Canadians on specific matters)
3. To review Bills passed by the House of Commons,
for the purpose of ensuring that:
- the provisions of the Bill will effectively produce the intended result, and that - those provisions will not inadvertently conflict with other existing laws, and that
- innocent people will not be unnecessarily hurt by the application of the Bill.
How Should the Senate be Chosen?
Elections are not the answer. I would much prefer to abolish the senate completely, rather than indulge in yet another popularity contest (customarily known as an election). Senators do not have any constituents as such, and they are not expected to specifically represent any particular riding.
Why then should the selection of senators depend on elections.
Elections are the proper and most effective way of choosing the House of Commons, which provides all the "government" we need in this country. No change should be made in that system for election of the government. There each elected member must represent the people who live in the particular riding where the member was elected, and the member is answerable to the people of that riding especially when the next election takes place.
A second elected house would create split responsibilities and much finger pointing, with little or no benefit to the running of the country. Why should Canada duplicate the confusion of Washington?
The role chosen here for the Senate of Canada requires that those chosen as Senators should bring a whole range of different skills to the work of the Senate, which means that the candidates for Senate seats would not necessarily be politicians. The selection of individual Senators should be made to reflect all the skills and the diversity of the whole country, and the mix of talents in the Senate should make the Senate very capable to study and understand the needs and requirements of the country as a whole. The Senate should be a group of dedicated Canadians who will work as a team with enough diversified expertise to do the assigned job in the most effective manner.
Who Should Choose the Senators?
The Senate should be under the control of the Governor General (or theoretically the Queen). The Governor General alone should have the responsibility of selecting and appointing Senators in accordance with a strict protocol which shall govern the selection process as follows:
Lists of possible Senators would be submitted annually to the Governor General by:
- the Federal Government - a confidential list of up to 20 names at any time,
- the Provincial Governments, - up to 3 names from each province
- Municipalities, - 1 name per municipality, 2 names for the largest cities
- and even National organizations of any stripe - 1 name per organization
The Governor General will need a staff of 1 or 2 to research the suggested names and record each individual's eligibility under the various requirements listed below. In this computer age, it is manageable and feasible to keep track of the attributes of each candidate. The ultimate selection of the Senators is the sole responsibility of the Governor General.
Requirements - Geographic, Occupational, Political.
1. The Country is divided into five regions (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies and Northern Territories, BC and Yukon).
2. Each region would have 21 Senators, for a total of 105 Senators.
3. The term of all senate appointments is 7 years. Each year 15 Senators (ie. 1/7 of the Senate) shall be appointed as of July 1st; and every year the same number of Senators shall retire on June 30th. If a Senator dies or becomes incapacitated while in office, that seat shall remain vacant for the remainder of the term.
4. Every Senator must agree to serve for seven years, having the Senate as their full time occupation.
5. No more than 35 of the Senators may have come from any one particular occupation. While Senators should come from all walks of life, one profession should not be allowed to dominate the Senate.
6. Upon appointment to the Senate, all Senators shall drop all memberships in all political parties. As Senators they have no vote in federal elections, but the entire election process shall be under the control and supervision of the Senate. Therefore Elections Canada shall report directly to the Senate. All election reviews or recounts shall be conducted by Senators whom the Senate shall name for those tasks.
7. Every Senator must be a Canadian citizen and an advocate for the national needs of Canada as a whole. Senators must not support any segment of Canada that advocates separation of any part of the country, or specific discrimination against any part of the country, or any group of peoples.
8. The ancestral heritage of some of the candidates has some bearing for some of the Senators as discussed under the section headed "protecting our Canadian heritage and culture".
Senators should be recruited from all sorts of occupations; the basic selection criteria being how much that individual could contribute to the balance and teamwork of the Senate. No previous political experience is needed to be a Senator. The number of Senators recruited from any given occupation should never exceed 35 Senators. The mix of Senators should include: business, labour, farmers, fishermen, doctors, engineers, biologists, accountants, technologists, computer experts, as well as lawyers and aboriginal peoples and many other occupational groups.
Every year there shall be 15 new Senators and 15 retiring Senators. This keeps the continuity in the Senate to ensure that the work of the Senate progresses normally. Reappointments should be very rare, but possible in exceptional circumstances. At the beginning of the change-over from the old to the new type of Senate, the size of the existing Senate should be cut to 90 existing Senators plus 15 new Senators. Some Senators may choose to retire voluntarily for their own reasons, but otherwise the Senators will be retired on the basis of those with the greatest seniority retiring first.
While age of candidates for the Senate is not restricted, it is intended that the candidates would be people of experience, who can bring the benefit of their varied experiences to the work of the Senate. Therefore it is likely that it should attract candidates who are in their late fifties, or early sixties, who have something to offer by way of personal knowledge and capabilities.
Once appointed to the Senate, the Senator is expected to drop all official connections to all Political Parties. Senators shall be free of obligations to any Political Party, and are expected to act and vote in the Senate as their own conscience dictates. This does not prevent Senators from attending political events if they so choose, although it is expected that they will try to attend events sponsored by more than one Political Party.
Reviewing of Bills Passed by the House of Commons
The role of the Senate must not be to block or obstruct any Bill that the elected Government of the day wants to pass, but the Senate should be given enough time to review the Bill clause by clause to ensure that it will indeed achieve the intended or desired result, and to make detailed recommendations accordingly. In this role the Senators are expected to use their collective experience and varied skills to improve the proposed Legislation and its associated Regulations for the benefit of Canadians, not necessarily to oppose the proposed legislation outright.
In this regard, the selection process for the Senators must recognize that the Senate must be populated with knowledgeable people in finance, business, manufacturing, engineering, agriculture, medicine, labour, transportation, communications, military hardware, community work, etc. as well as lawyers and ex-politicians.
Having reviewed the Bill thoroughly, the Senate will send it back to the House of Commons where it is finalized. The job of the Senate in this regard is finished after the first review, unless the House of Commons asks the Senate for a second review.
Waiving the Need for Senate Review of Certain Bills
Certain Bills, such as those dealing with a national emergency and disaster relief, back to work legislation, and routine financial Bills authorizing normal spending for a limited period, are all applicable for a limited time only, and are not usually very detailed. These Bills should be identified as such by the Governor General, and the Governor General should have the right to waive the Senate review of those specific Bills, on the grounds that they do not have a long term application . The Senate is primarily interested in the long term future of Canada.
It is recognized that the decision on these matters would be in the hands of the Governor General alone, but the occasions when the Governor General may take this action should be limited to situations which have a short term applicability.
Sessions in the Senate Chamber
The Senators shall meet regularly in formal sessions. The frequency and timing of the sessions shall be decided by the Senate as a whole, but it must devote enough time on a regular basis to deal expeditiously with all matters that come before the Senate, including:
Timely discussion and debate on all Bills sent to the Senate by the House of Commons for review, and to define any improvements that the majority of the Senate deems to be desirable, giving reasons where appropriate. The Senate should be required to complete their review of any legislation within a reasonable stipulated time line. The Senate should not be allowed to unduly delay the passing of any Bill.
Conscience of the Governments of Canada
To act as the conscience of the Governments of Canada, the Senators themselves must be persons of high regard. To fulfil this requirement, the Senators must be chosen to reflect the different segments of our society, including religious, occupational, educational, cultural, and national values.
All Senators must espouse the concept of Canada as a single nation. Persons with separatist ideas would not be acceptable as Senators.
The primary work of a Senator would be to sit on Senate Committees. Each Senate Committee would be mandated by the Senate itself to review a particular aspect of federal government activity or government policy, and to review the relevant laws and regulations. Most specifically the Senate can choose to look into the existing laws and regulations that govern all sorts of activities, and look for ways in which those matters could be revised in order to improve the effectiveness and/or the implementation of the legislation
The Senate shall be free to investigate and hold hearings on any aspect of Canadian life, without limitation, other than having to work within the financial budgets available to the Senate. The Senate shall decide which subjects they will look into, and in each case they will appoint a Committee of 5 to 7 Senators to undertake the task. That committee may take up to two years to complete their study and report back to the Senate, where their report will be debated (and possibly amended or sent back to the Committee for reworking).
Once the Senate Committee Report has passed the Senate, it is sent to the Governor General, who will release it shortly thereafter. These reports will have the prestige and influence of a Royal Commission Report. These reports are recommendations to the Government, and should be seriously considered by the House of Commons, but the Government of the day has the discretion (as it now has with Royal Commission Reports) whether or not it chooses to act on the recommendations. However, considering that the Senate is composed of persons with proven expertise and experience in many fields, and considering that their reports will be public knowledge, it is expected that most of the recommendations will be seriously considered.
In this role the Senators will need to balance the good of the country as a whole against the hopes and fears of various segments that disagree or dislike certain sensitive issues. Clearly subjects such as Penal and Capital Punishment, Abortion, Euthanasia, Rights of Religious Communities, and issues relating to the way of life of Canadians such as Health Care, Pensions, and Unemployment Insurance, as well as business issues relating to Fishing, Farming, Logging, Mining, and Protection of the Environment are all matters that the Senate should from time to time review as a matter of course. In addition the Senate should review all aspects of federal responsibility including the Military and its mandate, Trade, Financial Institutions, and all regulations affecting businesses.
The Senate may also choose to look into laws and regulations that should be enacted in order to deal with the ever developing new technologies where the existing laws are not really suited to deal with the changing times, such as the use and abuse of credit cards, operations of the internet, and the impact of high tech equipment on Canadian citizens.
Each Senator may sit on up to five Committees. Committees should normally number 5 to 7 Senators. The choice of Committee work for each Senator should be based on the vocation, experience and skill of the individual Senator, while attempting to have one Senator from each region on each Committee. Each Senate Committee should have a definitive assignment, a definitive budget, and a time scale in which to complete its task. The Senate as a whole would meet regularly to review the progress of each Committee, and to debate the progress report of each committee. Before a Senate report can be finalized and released to the Governor General, it must be voted on and passed by a majority of the Senate.
Protector of our Canadian Heritage and Culture
At the present time almost half of all the people living in Canada were born in other countries all over this world. While these good people have become Canadian citizens, and have made a major contribution to our country, many of them have brought to Canada with them the values and desires of other peoples, and thus the traditional values of the Canadian peoples born in this country, and some who have lived here for many generations, are being slowly eroded by sheer force of numbers. This problem is even more acute in the case of the aboriginal peoples.
While it would be unthinkable to favour any group of Canadians over any other group of Canadians in the House of Commons, the Senate should be required to consider the traditional values of the longtime residents of Canada, and to protect their heritage, their historical values, and their culture. For decades the Government has supported and encouraged ethnic groups to flourish, sometimes with financial assistance from the government. However the peoples who have lived here for generation after generation have been gradually outnumbered and in some cases shoved aside.
There are now many ethnic parts of Canadian cities where it is difficult to find a sign in English or French. Very large numbers of recent immigrants to Canada are from traditions other than those of Britain and France. In order to acknowledge and help to preserve that old Canadian heritage, some sort of deference should be given to the descendants of our founding nations as well as our aboriginal peoples.
The Senate is a suitable organization to take on this role, and maintain a balance between encouraging the new that is good, while preserving the old that is good.
The make up of the Senate should be chosen to reflect the roles for the Senate outlined above. The Heritage and Culture of this country will be represented by requiring that at least a certain numbers of Senators to come from families that have ancestries as follows:
- Minimum of 15 Senators must be of aboriginal descent
- Minimum of 15 Senators must have ancestors who arrived in Canada (BNA) before 1800
- Minimum of 15 Senators must have ancestors who arrived in Canada before 1900
- Minimum of 15 Senators must have ancestors who arrived in Canada before 2000
- The remaining 45 would be chosen without regard to place of birth or origin
It is noted that in my research for this paper, this element of the makeup of the Senate is very unpopular among some persons from that major part of our population who were born outside Canada.. However when I asked these same people whether the country of their birth would be content to have recent immigrants outnumber those who have long ancestry in that country, they invariably argued that it would be ridiculous. If national heritage is important to European and Asian countries, why should it not be just as important to Canada? This provision does not exclude new Canadian citizens, it only ensures that about half of the Senate were at least born in Canada, and presumably would be naturally interested in preserving the Canadian way of doing things.
In applying this criteria, the Governor General would be expected to consider the Senate as a whole, rather than try to apply this ancestral background equally in all regions, because there may be fewer eligible candidates especially in the western regions, and this criteria should not be the sole governing factor in choosing new Senators. Since the numbers of persons with some of this sort of heritage is greater in eastern Canada that it is in the west, it is probable that the quota for those who arrived in Canada before 1800 would be filled largely by easterners. That is perfectly alright. The west would be represented in other categories in the selection process.
Responsibilities of the Senate with Respect to Heritage and Culture
The Senate will be required to define what it is to be Canadian. The mix of cultures found in Canada is ultimately what produces the society in which we live today, but we must not forget our past and the history of this country, and how it came to be what it is today.
Thus the Senate should take over the Heritage Ministry of the government. While the Ministry would retain its separate funding, the operation of the Ministry would be controlled by a standing Senate Committee. The Senate is in a good position to decide what is of historical importance, and what is not of importance to the Canadian Heritage.
In addition the Senate should be responsible for all matters of Heraldry and Protocol. In this regard, the Senate shall stipulate the proper use and display of heraldic symbols including flags, crests, and insignia. These matters are supposed to be under the control "officially" of the Governor General, and therefore it is logical that the Senate should be the organ through which the Governor General can exercise that authority.
This same body should control the Canadian protocol for parades and ceremonial occasions. At such times the armed forces, police, bands, and all other groups involved shall take their cue from the Senate Committee assigned to deal with that subject.
Conclusions
The Senate as presently constituted, has been has been widely criticised in recent years. Some would have the Senate chosen by elections, but that means that the Senate would be populated by political people only, in which case there would be two elected houses in Ottawa, resulting in an increase in political rhetoric and little other benefit to the Canadian people. It would be far better to abolish the Senate completely than opt for such a disadvantageous alternative as a "elected" Senate.
The preferred alternative is to de-politicise the Senate, and make it more like the House of Lords in England. Senators should be seen more as advisors to the Government on behalf of the citizens. Their function and duty is to the country. Anything that is done by the Senate to make the laws of the land more responsive to the needs and wishes of the citizens, will justify the continuance of the Senate as a Canadian institution.
In particular, Senate Committees should be set up by the Senate from time to time to look into various aspects of how things are done in Canada, how various segments our Country work, and how those endeavours are impacted by existing laws, regulations, or codes. Senate Reports on these subjects should lead to improvements in the governance and operation of those endeavours.
Finally, as a body responsible to the Governor General, the Senate should be responsible for the defining and preserving the Canadian Heritage and Canadian Culture, including the history of Canada, and the celebration of Canadian achievements at home and abroad. Any aspect of our Constitution that is nominally the responsibility of the Governor General as the Queen's Representative, should be controlled by a government body which reports directly to the Governor General. This includes elections, protocols, ceremonies, heraldry and the like.
Respectfully suggested
H. J. Wilkinson, P.Eng., C.Arb.
c/o Wilkinson Engineering Inc.
1022 Waterdown Road
Burlington, ON, L7T 1N3
Released: September 15, 2000
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