Mr. Speaker, I thought my hon. colleague raised quite a good point. There is the question of the internal reform of that House.
I must say I disagree with one unstated component of his observation, which is that lack of financial transparency and accountability is an inherent feature of an unelected House. The moat-cleaning scandal in the British House of Commons demonstrates quite effectively that elected people can be quite outrageous in their use of taxpayers' funds when there is not proper accounting.
As to the point about the need for better transparency and accounting, I certainly agree that is true. My sense is that the Senate is working in that direction. Of course, it opened itself up to a very thorough audit, which is now going through all senators' expenses. I must say that seeing what is going on there is a good lesson to all of us that we ought to be very careful to adhere not merely to the highest standards that currently exist but to standards that might in the future be applied retroactively in the court of public opinion, so that even if one has not formally broken the rules, if one has violated what common sense would dictate ought to have been within the rules, one will face consequences in public opinion.
Certainly, the general observation that the upper House could use some internal reform is a proposition that is very reasonable.