6.3 Some rules relating to amendments

The following are the major rules that apply to amendments:

1. An amendment moved in the House must be seconded, but a seconder is not required for amendments in the Committee of the Whole House.
2. An amendment must be relevant to the motion to which it is moved.
3. An amendment cannot be a direct negative of the motion before the House. The proper course of action for a Member directly opposed to a motion is to vote against it. A motion could be completely reversed in meaning by the insertion of the word "not", but this would result in a direct negative of the motion and is not allowed.
4. An amendment cannot refer to the conduct of certain classes of person. Under the rules of the Legislative Assembly the conduct of certain persons cannot be discussed except on a substantive motion (conduct of the Sovereign, Governor, etc).
5. An amendment cannot be substantially the same as a proposition in respect of which the House has already expressed its opinion during the session.
6. An amendment cannot cause the Legislative Assembly to anticipate another debate. That is, an amendment cannot be accepted which would cause the debate to deal with the subject matter of a Bill or other matter set down for consideration at another time.
7. An amendment cannot be at variance with, or inconsistent with, a matter in respect of which the House or Committee of the Whole House has already taken a decision. For example, if the Committee of the Whole House has already rejected an amendment that proposed to omit certain words, it is not in order to move another amendment which seeks to omit those same words.
8. An amendment cannot be worded so that, if carried, it would make the motion to which it is moved unintelligible or ungrammatical.
9. The mover, with the leave of the House or Committee of the Whole House, may withdraw an amendment.

Last reviewed: 17 July, 2009

Last updated: 22 July, 2009

^ to top