Procedure and House Affairs committee  Penalties in terms of parliamentarians or the government?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm really not an expert or at liberty to say, but—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think the key thing for me is to know that government is still functioning. I come back to the committees; that was the one thing that we wanted. We understand that it's a complex issue. We wanted to make sure the proper debate happened in the public domain, and that's why the continued working of the committees would have been of real benefit to us.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Being the head of an organization with 17,500 pensioners, I'm now entering the political realm myself, and I think one of the key things is to understand what the people want. I would, then, support the idea of this going in front of Parliament and getting the wishes of Parliament tabled rather than it being a government decision.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Correct. But I do believe that we were hoping to get some of this to committees as well, and the committees did cease, is that not correct, during prorogation?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In our case, I think the one recommendation is the period in which the House is prorogued. I do believe, if I am correct, in the Ontario legislature they prorogued and then a couple of days later continued on. So it's a question of the business of Parliament coming to a halt during prorogation and for how long.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I do.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right. And that was one of our objectives, to make sure that the debate had the visibility in terms of the broader population and the MPs.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, that very definitely would have been of benefit to us, if the committee could have continued during prorogation. I agree.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Understood.