Monthly Archives: April 2016

Standing Committees: finding their printed information, pre-1995, or print-based access (Part 2)

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Now that we’ve explored finding Standing Committee information on the Web, how do we access the paper versions? We will be examining the following documents:

  • Minutes of Proceedings: the official record of the committee
  • Evidence: verbatim transcripts of the meetings
  • Reports: the final results of business or study completed by the Standing Committee, presented to the House of Commons

As in Part 1, we will use the Standing Committee dealing with the Environment as our example. AMICUS, the Library and Archives Canada catalogue, is our access point and we will use the Advanced Search so that all searching options are available.

Continuing with the environmental theme for documents published in 1986, search using the following:

  1. In the Name Keyword field, type standing committee inside quotation marks.
  2. In a second Name Keyword field, type environment.
  3. Type 1986 in the Any Keyword field,* then press Enter.

*Note: Start with the date in the Any Keyword field, as the session may span several years and you’ll have a better chance of retrieving relevant records. Or, you can omit the date completely and sort your results by date.

The results list shows:

  • the report produced that year, Forest Resources and Industries in Eastern Canada
  • two microform versions of the Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence
  • the paper version of the Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence for the session

Most importantly, we discover that the name of the committee in 1986 was the Standing Committee on Environment and Forestry.

The catalogue record for the report follows. Key information for retrieval has been highlighted.

AMICUS No. 6662440 Monograph
NLC COPIES: C.O.P. – COP.C.XC50 – Add specific Parliament, session and issue no. / Ajouter la législature, la session et la livraison désirée
NAME(S): *Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee on Environment and Forestry
TITLE(S): Forest resources and industries in Eastern Canada : first report / Standing Committee on Environment and Forestry
PUBLISHER: [Ottawa] : The Committee, 1986.
DESCRIPTION: ii, 95, [17, 18], 107, ii p.; 27 cm.
SERIES: Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee on Environment and Forestry. Minutes of proceedings and evidence of the Standing Committee on Environment and Forestry = Procès-verbaux et témoignages du Comité permanent de l’environnement et des forêts. 1984-85-86, issue no. 7
NOTES: Text in English and French with French text on inverted pages.
“June 1986”.
Includes bibliographical references.
RELATIONSHIPS: Canada. Parlement. Chambre des communes. Comité permanent de l’environnement et des forêts Ressources et industries forestières de l’est du Canada :. [Ottawa] : Le Comité, 1986.

You’ll notice that the record specifies that you should “Add specific Parliament, session and issue no.” This is required for the physical retrieval of these publications at Library and Archives Canada.

Where do we find this information?

Specific Parliaments are listed on PARLINFO. In this case, 1986 spans both the 1st and 2nd sessions of the 33rd Parliament. If we were to order the report released in June 1986 (see highlighted Note in record above), we would request the 33rd Parliament, 1st Session (1984.11.05-1986.08.28), Issue no. 7 (see highlighted Series note in record above).

And so ends our brief introduction to searching the Standing Committees!

Standing Committees: finding their electronic information, post-1995, or Web-based access (Part 1)

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Parliamentary Standing Committee information can be tricky to find, if you don’t know how the process works. In this two-part series, we’ll link the methods of finding the current, Web-based information to locating earlier hardcopy materials (as far back as the mid-1800s) held at Library and Archives Canada.

A good deal of parliamentary work is done in committee, where members study and amend bills, or examine current issues or departmental spending plans referred to them by the House of Commons.

After every meeting, two official documents are published:

  • Minutes of Proceedings: the official record of each committee meeting contained in a numbered issue. Each issue includes that meeting’s date, content, subjects discussed, list of witnesses, and references to any reports to the House.
  • Evidence: the verbatim transcripts of the meeting

A third official document, the committee report, is the document that most researchers are interested in. These reports are produced irregularly, upon the committee’s completion of specific business or study, and are subsequently presented to the House. There may be responses by the government and/or the parties.

As an example, we will use a study on urban conservation, produced by the Environment committee. Information about standing committees from 1995 to present day, is located on the Parliament of Canada website. The printing of paper versions of committee materials ceased in 1998.

From the front page of the website, follow the links for Parliamentary Business [tab at top of page] → Committees → House of Commons Committees → List of Committees → ENVI Environment and Sustainable Development.

How to find a report

The quickest way to find reports is to use the Search box at the top right of the page. Type “urban conservation” report (keep the words together inside quotation marks); the first item on the list is the report we’re looking for – Urban Conservation Practices in Canada.

Note: Print format [upper right] gives you the searchable .pdf version.

Upon opening the document, we discover the parliament and session in which the report was released (important for further research), i.e., 41st Parliament, 1st Session, June 2, 2011-September 13, 2013.

To search by session, go to the Committee home page, click “Select a different session” and choose the one in which our report was tabled, i.e., 41-1. This opens up a page showing the Summary of Work of the committee during that session. Click on All Reports. Here we find more information about our document—the report number, the dates it was presented to the House, and the government’s response. By clicking on Study Details for Report 7, you’re brought to the page with a list of Witnesses (Evidence) as well as the transcripts of the related Meetings (Minutes of Proceedings).

This brings us to the end of Part 1 on the Standing Committees. There’s more to come in Part 2, where we deal with the task of finding the paper formats!