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This article was published 02/12/2009 (4925 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AN all-party committee of Manitoba MLAs studying Senate reform has come out — as expected — in favour of an elected Senate.

The Special Committee on Senate Reform’s final report was released Tuesday.

The committee recommended elections be held in six regions — Manitoba has six senators — with the person with most votes in each region placed on a list to be submitted to the prime minister.

The report also said it had no issue with Ottawa’s proposal of an eight-year term limit for senators. Currently, senators can serve until the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Manitoba held public hearings on Senate reform in the past year, chaired by Rossmere MLA Erna Braun.

Federal cabinet minister Steven Fletcher, the minister of state for democratic reform and MP for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia, has said Canadians believe it’s time to modernize Parliament’s upper chamber.

The federal Conservatives have tried twice to get term limits in the Senate. The first bill, introduced in 2006, wasn’t passed. The Liberals in the Senate, who hold the majority of votes, wanted the issue studied by the Supreme Court to ensure the government was within its constitutional rights to introduce term limits. A second bill was introduced last May.