Sometimes these things just pop up, and you wonder where they come from or how they have come up. You often wonder whether we should, as a parliament, be looking at what other parliaments are doing around the world in dealing with their independents and how they make the whole process inclusive enough. Sometimes we're doing this stuff on the fly, without any rhyme or reason.
I look at this as a bit of an opening of the door for the independents. I'd like to give it a shot, because you see what happens in the House: an amendment comes up in the House, people are all whipped to vote the way they are supposed to vote, and there's really no big discussion. There it is in front of you.
I think the independents, if they really believe there should be something that they want in the bill, might have a better shot, if they are here to show and explain it, at getting input here.
It would be interesting to try this out for a year and then ask the independents what they thought of it. I hope this is opening up the door for the independents and not closing the door. I think we should give it a shot.
This is not standard procedure, so are we going to have to vote on it every time, at the start of every session, if independents are going to have any input this way?
Is that your understanding, Mr. Chair?