It's fine? Okay.
Basically I'm trying to create a system so that when a private member's bill comes forward, we as the finance committee and members of Parliament can actually have an idea of what the costing of that private member's bill will be and what the impact will be to the treasury. So when we go to vote on a private member's bill, which a lot of us vote on independently because they're not government-whipped votes, it will give us a better breadth of knowledge as we make that decision, so we have all the information in front of us.
There was a history in the last session of private members' bills coming through with no costing done, and the impact would have been substantial. I also have examples where he has done costing and provided some really good information on certain private members' bills. That allowed members who were voting on bills to make educated decisions on whether or not to support them.
It's one thing to have a piece of legislation from a private member come forward. In intent, it sounds really good. But when you see the financial consequences, you have to sit back, weigh them, and ask if this is really the best use of Canadian taxpayers' dollars.
That's the intent behind this. He has the facilities, staff, and budget to do this. All we're doing is formalizing the routine so that we as a committee, which he reports to in this case, will see this. Then we'll be able to proceed forward on private members' bills with a complete deck of information. That's the intent behind the motion.