Discussions are underway to come to a new agreement on the makeup of Senate committees before midnight on Halloween, and the process is expected to see Independent senators for the first time take control of several chair and vice-chair roles.

Three sources, speaking on background to iPolitics, said members of the Independent Senators Group and the Liberal and Conservative caucuses are currently in discussions about the best way to accommodate the growing number of Independent members and to make sure they continue to have fair representation on committees.

The current agreement, reached in December 2016 and expiring next month, gives Independent and Conservative senators 40 per cent of the seats on committees each, and the Liberals 20 per cent.

Rather than trying to get Conservative or Liberal members to give up their seats on committees to make room for Independent senators, the agreement allowed for an increase in the size of committees.

Many now sit at roughly 13 or 14 members compared to the more typical nine or 10.

But if that agreement expires without a replacement, the committees will revert back to their original sizes prior to the December 2016 order, meaning Independent senators — the second-largest bloc in the Upper House after the Conservatives — will lose the expanded number of seats they now have on committees.

The sources noted that it is likely the discussions will see the Independent senators gain even more representation given their continued growth as a group — including several chair or vice-chair positions.

Two of the committees seen as ripe for potential Independent leadership are the Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee — which currently has neither a chair nor a vice-chair — and the National Security and Defence committee, which has had no chair since former Yukon Senator Daniel Lang retired this summer.

Neither committee can meet without chairs, except for the purpose of electing one, but doing so before an agreement is reached on committee makeup would be futile, one source said.

Another source said Independent Ontario Senator Frances Lankin is widely viewed as the frontrunner for chair of the legal committee whenever a vote does happen.

As it stands now, there are 105 members of the Red Chamber: 36 Conservatives, 35 members of the Independent Senators Group, 16 Liberals, eight non-affiliated members, and 10 vacant seats.

That’s down from the 41 Conservatives, 43 Independents and 21 Liberals in the Senate when representation was last discussed in December 2016.