I once had socks with pigs on them that used to get us through these log jams, Mr. Chair—bring back the socks—but I think it is unprecedented for a committee to agree to a clause-by-clause start date without seeing legislation. I wouldn't ask our analysts to dig through previous motions, but I would think you would struggle to find one.
In that vein, I can speak only for myself, but I will work on persuading my colleagues, in order to be very generous here, that if the government has an objective to ensure that the bill is not held up at committee, we would agree to starting clause-by-clause no later than three weeks from when we get the bill, which means we could start it earlier, but that you absolutely know that it will start in the fall, when we get it.
That seems eminently reasonable for a party, any party at the table or any member of Parliament to agree to moving to clause-by-clause without even seeing the bill. I respect Mr. Davies' observation that what we did with the budget was quite abridged, but we had had that bill for a while in text form. We don't have this bill in text form. All we have is a ways and means motion and, as I said, the rumours are flying ferociously—to continue to use alliteration—that there will be carve-outs, and the carve-outs are very complicated to write. That's why I think they didn't end up in the ways and means motion.
If we're to have a bill with carve-outs, that's going to be very complicated, but by giving the government the comfort of three weeks, no later than three weeks—well, three weeks generally, but we'll leave that up to interpretation—it will mean that the bill will leave the committee and be reported back to the House in the fall.
That's a guarantee, depending on when you guys decide. I suppose it depends on when you decide to table legislation in the House, but we would agree to starting clause-by-clause three weeks after the bill comes to the committee. That gives you the comfort that you're going to get a clause-by-clause start date, and if things are going very well, maybe we'll agree to start it sooner. However, I think we're actually starting a very dangerous precedent here by agreeing to establish clause-by-clause start dates before we even see legislation.
I will remind folks that Parliament will always look different after the next election. It doesn't matter who's in power and who's not, but you should be very comfortable with the idea that any precedents you're setting now will be used by a future government. I will tell you that if you guys die on this hill, then if I have anything to do with it, every single bill that comes to the finance committee will have clause-by-clause prestudy in it from here until I go, because we're going to go down a really bad road here.
I think we're being pretty reasonable. We'll agree to go to clause-by-clause at three weeks. You know you will get your bill out. That will create an impetus for the government to table its legislation early so it can come to the committee early and you will have it in the fall. If the three weeks is a no-go, then we might as well suspend until the end of the meeting, but that's kind of a fallback position and a reasonable agreement.
Of course, that is unless the government is nervous about having the study next Tuesday, which is what I suspect is really happening. The government doesn't want to have the witnesses we just had come in and say how bad the legislation is going to be, which is the only reason for which they must be putting in a drop-dead clause-by-clause start date, which has never happened before.
It is what it is, but let's see what they think.