This bill ratifies an agreement that alters how parliamentary groups are defined and how certain opposition roles are recognized for the duration of the 43rd Legislature. It raises the numeric threshold used in one provision, creates non‑voting participation rights for a member designated by the Third Opposition Group at the Office of the National Assembly, adjusts lodging‑expense rules, and changes who may appoint staff and receive indemnities.
It also amends the Assembly’s Code to exclude certain family‑leave and caregiver absences from a Member’s “good attendance” obligations.
The measure is explicitly time‑limited to the 43rd Legislature and grants the Office of the National Assembly the power to make implementing regulations — including retroactive rules back to 12 October 2022. For administrators and compliance officers, the bill means new pay formulas, a new set of expense eligibility rules, procedural adjustments to Office participation, and an expanded attendance‑exception regime that will affect committee and plenary staffing and records of participation.
At a Glance
What It Does
For the 43rd Legislature only, the bill changes statutory thresholds for parliamentary‑group treatment, allows a designated Third Opposition Group member to attend Office proceedings without a vote, expands lodging expense eligibility, adjusts which officeholders may appoint staff, sets specific indemnity percentages for certain opposition officeholders, and creates specific attendance exceptions for pregnancy, parental leave and caregiver illness. It also authorizes the Office of the National Assembly to make implementing regulations with limited retroactivity.
Who It Affects
Members of the National Assembly (particularly leaders, House leaders and whips of opposition parties), party offices and their staff, the Office of the National Assembly (administration and budget), and Members who take parental or caregiver leave. It also affects budget officers who must integrate new indemnities and expense rules into payroll and accounting systems.
Why It Matters
The bill shifts resources and formal recognition toward smaller opposition groups for a defined legislative term and formalizes protections for Members taking family‑related leave — changes that will alter staffing, payroll, expense adjudication, and internal Office governance. The retroactive regulation power raises implementation and transparency questions for administrators reconciling pay and expense records back to October 12, 2022.
More articles like this one.
A weekly email with all the latest developments on this topic.
What This Bill Actually Does
The bill implements an agreement among Assembly actors that temporarily changes how opposition parties qualify for certain privileges and payments. One straightforward technical change increases a numeric threshold in an existing provision (replacing “twenty” with “twenty‑five”) for the duration of the 43rd Legislature; that change modifies how a parliamentary concept in the Act is applied for this legislative period.
It also removes or replaces several second‑paragraph qualifications across the Act to bring wording into alignment with the Agreement.
On participation and governance, the bill permits a Member designated by the party recognized as the Third Opposition Group to attend Office proceedings without a vote. Separately, it expands the roster of officeholders who may appoint executive secretaries and other staff for the 43rd Legislature, and it deems certain staff appointments made between 12 October 2022 and the date preceding assent to have been properly made.Financially, the bill alters indemnities and expense rules: it sets explicit indemnity percentages for leaders of opposition parties other than the Official Opposition (35% of the annual indemnity) and for the House Leader of the Second Opposition Group (25%).
It also revises lodging expense eligibility to permit payment for lodging either in Québec City for Members whose principal residence is nearby but who do not represent a Québec City riding, or in a Member’s riding when that Member’s principal residence is in the territory of Ville de Québec but they represent elsewhere. These changes, together with regulation‑making authority granted to the Office, create immediate payroll and expense reconciliation tasks and allow the Office to adopt detailed implementation rules, including retroactive effect back to 12 October 2022.Finally, the Code of ethics and conduct is amended to state that a Member will not be considered in default of maintaining a good attendance record when absent for pregnancy, birth, adoption, maternity/paternity/parental leave, or because of the state of health of a relative or person the Member cares for.
That creates a formal, statutory exception to attendance expectations and will change how attendance records, committee substitutions and quorum issues are managed for affected Members.
The Five Things You Need to Know
For the duration of the 43rd Legislature the bill replaces the word “twenty” with “twenty‑five” in section 25, altering the numeric threshold used in that provision for this legislature only.
The bill authorizes a Member designated by the party recognized as the Third Opposition Group to attend Office of the National Assembly proceedings without voting rights (Section 95 amendment).
Section 104 is amended to expand lodging expense eligibility: the Office may pay for lodging in Québec City (or its immediate vicinity) for Members whose principal residence is in that area but who do not represent a Québec City electoral division, and for Members whose principal residence is farther than 50 km from the Parliament Building in special cases.
The Code of ethics (new paragraph added to section 35) exempts absences tied to pregnancy, birth, adoption, maternity/paternity/parental leave or the health of a relative/care recipient from being counted as a breach of the attendance requirement.
The bill fixes indemnities in the conditions‑of‑employment act for the 43rd Legislature: leaders of opposition parties other than the Official Opposition receive 35% of the annual indemnity and the House Leader of the Second Opposition Group receives 25% (Section 7 amendments); it also permits Office regulations to be retroactive to 12 October 2022.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Temporary change to a numeric threshold
This single‑line amendment replaces “twenty” with “twenty‑five” for the duration of the 43rd Legislature. Practically, that changes how the cited provision operates for this legislative term only — likely affecting the counting rule or qualification tied to that number. Administrators must apply the higher threshold to any decision or calculation governed by that subsection during the 43rd Legislature and revert processes when the temporary period ends.
Non‑voting participation for the Third Opposition Group at the Office
Section 95 is changed to let a Member designated by the party recognized as the Third Opposition Group take part, without vote, in Office proceedings during the 43rd Legislature. The amendment removes some prior second‑paragraph restraints elsewhere in the Act, shifting internal governance by widening who may sit at Office meetings. That’s a procedural concession: Third Opposition Group representation gains visibility and input, but not a vote — so rules and minutes will need to record attendance and clarify which interventions are consultative versus determinative.
Expanded lodging expense rules and distance carve‑outs
The bill revises the list of reimbursable expenses to expressly include lodging in Québec City (or its immediate vicinity) for Members whose principal residence is in that area but who represent a different electoral division, and also clarifies an exception for a Member whose main residence is in Charlevoix–Côte‑de‑Beaupré and lives more than 50 km from the Parliament Building. Implementation will require the Office to define “immediate vicinity,” establish evidence standards for principal residence and travel distance, and set scales or caps for lodging payments.
Attendance exceptions tied to family and caregiving
The Code is amended to specify three categories of permitted absences that will not count against a Member’s attendance record: absences connected to pregnancy, birth or adoption; absences while on maternity/paternity/parental leave; and absences due to the health of a relative or care recipient. This provision creates a statutory safe harbor for Members taking family‑related leave, but it leaves implementation details — such as notice, documentation, and how absences interact with committee quorums and substitute arrangements — to Office rules or standing orders.
Staff appointments, indemnities and payroll effects
For the 43rd Legislature the bill broadens which officeholders may appoint executive secretaries and other staff, deems certain staff appointments between 12 October 2022 and assent to be valid, and fixes indemnity rates: 35% of the annual indemnity for leaders of opposition parties other than the Official Opposition, and 25% for the House Leader of the Second Opposition Group. These are concrete payroll changes: payroll systems, benefit calculations and pension plan inputs must be updated, and the Office will need rules for back pay where staff appointments or indemnities are treated retroactively.
Retroactivity and delegation to the Office of the National Assembly
The bill deems certain past staff appointments valid and expressly empowers the Office of the National Assembly to make any regulation necessary to implement the Act; those regulations may be retroactive to 12 October 2022. That delegation transfers substantial detail work to the Office — from defining terms like “immediate vicinity” to setting payment scales — but also places on the Office the responsibility for ensuring transparency, recordkeeping and legal compliance when adopting retroactive rules.
This bill is one of many.
Codify tracks hundreds of bills on this topic across all five countries.
Explore this topic in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Leaders and House leaders of smaller opposition parties — they gain formal indemnities (35% or 25% as specified) and recognition to hire staff, increasing resources and capacity for party operations.
- Members on pregnancy, parental or caregiver leave — the Code amendment prevents those absences from being recorded as breaches of attendance, protecting Members’ standing and reducing pressure to participate while on leave.
- Designated members of the Third Opposition Group — they obtain access to Office proceedings (non‑voting), which gives them a formal platform to influence administrative decisions affecting the Assembly.
- Members whose principal residence is in or near Québec City but who represent other divisions — they become eligible for specified lodging expense coverage, reducing the personal cost of fulfilling parliamentary duties.
- Office of the National Assembly administrators — they gain delegated rule‑making authority to fill implementation gaps and create standardized processes (albeit with added workload).
Who Bears the Cost
- The Office of the National Assembly and the Assembly’s budget — higher indemnities, expanded lodging payments and retroactive staff payments increase payroll and expense outlays that the Office must absorb and justify.
- Payroll and human‑resources teams — they must reconcile retroactive changes, update benefit and pension calculations, and potentially issue back pay or corrections for staff and Members.
- Taxpayers/public purse — expanded indemnities and lodging coverage increase public expenditures for the legislative branch during the 43rd Legislature.
- Administrative staff and compliance officers — implementing broad regulatory authority, defining ambiguous terms (like “immediate vicinity”), and adjudicating retroactive claims create extra workload and legal risk for the Office.
- Opposition parties not covered by the specific temporary rules — the redistribution of staff recognition and indemnities to smaller groups may alter resource parity among parties and require internal reallocation of collective resources.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between inclusion and accommodation on one hand — expanding recognition, pay and attendance protections to support smaller parties and Members with family or caregiving responsibilities — and accountability, parity and fiscal restraint on the other: the measures improve access and flexibility but shift costs, create administrative complexity and delegate detail to retroactive Office regulation, leaving unresolved questions about fairness, transparency and long‑term precedent.
The bill bundles together procedural, financial and ethics changes and makes them explicitly temporary; that solves short‑term political alignment issues but creates a patchwork of rules that will end when the 43rd Legislature does. The Office’s power to make implementing regulations — including retroactive ones back to 12 October 2022 — is practically necessary to operationalize vague terms (for example, “immediate vicinity”) but shifts accountability and the heavy lifting from the legislature’s text to administrative rule‑making.
That delegation raises transparency and fairness questions: retroactive regulations will require the Office to justify back payments and altered appointment records, and will put administrators in the position of reconciling past practice with newly stated standards.
The attendance exceptions promote work‑family balance but reduce the statutory pressure on Members to maintain presence, which could complicate committee quorums or prolong proceedings when several Members are on leave. The law leaves procedural details unspecified — notice and documentation requirements, how substitutes are appointed, and whether absences affect committee votes — so operational clarity depends on swift, detailed Office rules.
Finally, the numeric threshold change and the reallocation of indemnities and staffing recognition favor smaller opposition groups for this legislature; while that is the bill’s purpose, it also reallocates limited legislative resources and may prompt disputes about fairness, especially if retroactive payments are sizable or if term limits expire and entitlements revert.
There's more to this law than the bill.
Codify Laws traces every connection across the legislative lifecycle.