With all due respect to Mr. Poilievre and his excellent comments, I am opposed to his motion for a number of reasons.
I have been on committees for a number of years, and generally when witnesses appear before us, we have a document prepared by the researchers with suggested questions. I sincerely believe that our researchers did that because they had time to do it, and that they're not doing it now because they don't have time, and yet we are only sitting 10 hours per week. If we sit 48 hours per week, logically, they will have less time, and so will we.
This is the first time I have been on a committee where we didn't have a document to prepare us to hear witnesses. In my view, it's not a mark of great professionalism. I would like to think that Mr. Poilievre agrees with me about that.
I am going to give a few examples to show that the bill needs to be considered quickly, of course, but that we still need time to study it seriously. I am referring to the part that deals with the political appointments commission. In my opinion, the decision announced yesterday by Mr. Harper to eliminate the political appointments commission, rather than to appoint someone else, is going to change our consideration of Bill C-2 somewhat.
For example, you announced, and it's a good thing, that the $1,000 reward would be eliminated. That shows how important it is to have witnesses. All of the witnesses proposed amendments. I submitted a document from the library that indicated that for the 600 acts passed between 1988 and 2000, the average length of time between first reading and royal assent was around 200 days. We are even willing to accelerate the process in order to cut that time in half, but I think it's a bit much to go from 200 days to 15 days.
Page 840 of Marleau- Montpetit says the following: “While the average length of a committee meeting is two hours,” twice a week, “a committee may choose to meet for a shorter or longer period...”
We voted that the committee, rather than meeting twice for two hours every week, would meet for 10 hours every week. We have just greatly increased the number of sitting hours. So we have been very cooperative and have shown that we are prepared to give quick consideration to the legislation.
For all of these reasons, which seem rational to me, we are going to oppose the motion. I would ask you to forgive me in advance, Mr. Chairman, because I don't want to presume what the outcome of the vote will be, but should there be a tie, does the chair's vote have to maintain the status quo?