Mr. Chairman, I will try to be brief because obviously a lot of my colleagues want to join in the debate. As the member for Elk Island indicated, there are a number of amendments that we would like to get to and have people speak to.
I want to make a couple of points for the hon. government House leader who spoke earlier in defence of the legislation. First, he said, and I believe I would be quoting fairly accurately, that he hopes everyone will opt in and he hopes no one will vote against the legislation. With all due respect, I think there will be a number of people who will vote against it, perhaps not because they do not agree with different parts of the legislation but because they certainly disagree with the process through which this is arrived at.
It is important that the general public understands that a number of people have great difficulty with this process whereby, as a number of people have indicated, we debate, decide on and rush through a bill concerning our own remuneration. I fully expect, with all due respect, that some people will be voting against the process, against what we view as a very seriously flawed process.
Second, I want to briefly address the opt in clause. In responding to the hon. member for Langley—Abbotsford, the House leader said something to the effect that if an individual does not opt in basically the entire existing remuneration package will stay in place for that member of parliament.
I cannot believe that the government would proceed with something that would create an administrative and logistical nightmare for the people who govern and administer the wage and benefit packages for members of parliament. I cannot believe that we would put something in place that would affect not only our wages but our pensions and the rate they accrue at and in which some people would still have a tax free allowance and other people would not. To have individual situations of that nature is absolutely ludicrous. I think the general public needs to be aware of that. It really calls into question why the government would have an opt in clause like this for something as fundamentally altering as legislation dealing not only with wages but with pensions and other benefits.
As to the issue of this amendment, I certainly support the intent of it so that it only applies after the next election, such that, as a number of the Progressive Conservatives who put this forward have indicated, we would not be dealing with stuff for our own benefit unless we actually run in the next election and are re-elected. There would be an understanding among the general public that this would apply at that time.
I would question the right hon. member who just spoke. He should have had those types of concerns when he was a high profile cabinet minister with the Mulroney government. He could have changed it then. If he is so fundamentally opposed to the process, let me say that it could have been changed then, as it can be changed now.
It is absolutely ridiculous that the Prime Minister defends this by saying this is the way it has always been done and therefore it always has to be done that way. As the right hon. gentleman said, and I agree with him on this point, there is nothing preventing us from changing this. At this time we are a law unto ourselves, especially in dealing with issues that benefit ourselves.
There is a last point I would like to make, and then I will turn this over to colleagues who also want to address the bill. I would direct this to the government House leader. We have a different government than we did a year ago, but it is basically the same administration. I think most people understand that. A year ago we dealt with the pension and remuneration package put forward and the government sought to end the opt out or, in other words, to have everyone in the plan. I assume that was because it saw the error in having multiple different schemes for different MPs, with some in and some out.
Yet the reality is that we are perpetuating that error in judgment by having another situation whereby we could have MPs treated differently in regard to whether they opt in or stay out. Why was there a different rule last year where everyone was forced back into the pension plan in order to try to have uniformity when we now have a plan with all these people who could opt out?