Tax Bills and the Ways and Means Process (Essay‪)‬

The consideration by Parliament of the Crown's requests for taxation is one of the cornerstones of our system of government. Although the rules of procedure are fairly straightforward for the introduction of a tax bill, there are many parliamentary issues which are brought into play and merit reflection. Among them are the amount of consideration and resources required for increasingly large and complex Budget Implementation Bills; the repetition found in some debates; the inclusion of non-budgetary matters in the Budget Implementation Bill; the implementation of tax initiatives before legislation is enacted; the effect of tax alleviations proposed by private Members on the government's management of the fiscal plan; and the preclusion of any debate on private Members' bills which propose tax increases. These and other issues related to ways and means are examined in the following article. **********