Third reading

What it means

By the time a bill reaches third reading it has already been introduced and given first reading, agreed to in principle at second reading, studied clause by clause in committee, and dealt with at report stage where any committee amendments are considered by the whole chamber. Third reading is the chamber's last look at the bill as it now stands.

Debate at third reading is narrower than at second reading. Second reading is about whether the chamber accepts the principle of the bill; third reading is about whether it accepts this text. Amendments at this stage are limited — the usual third-reading amendments are motions to defer the bill or send it back to committee rather than to rewrite it.

A federal bill must clear third reading in both the House of Commons and the Senate, in the same words. If the Senate amends a bill, it returns to the House, and the two chambers exchange messages until they agree or the bill dies. Provincial bills clear third reading once, in the single chamber.

Third reading is where the most legible vote usually happens. If you want one number that captures whether a chamber backed a bill, the third-reading division is normally it — which is why third reading, not assent, is the stage worth watching.

It is worth being clear about what third reading is not. Passing third reading does not make a bill law. A federal bill that clears the House at third reading still has the entire Senate process ahead of it, and can be amended there or simply never taken up. Bills die at the end of a session, and a bill that has passed one chamber and not the other dies with everything else.