This would be the second report of the Subcommittee on Private Members' Business. We were asked by this committee to look into a remedy for Ms. Bell, the member from Vancouver Island North, regarding a bill that, through no fault of the Standing Orders, had collided with another bill of a very similar nature. We've come up with our recommendations for this committee on how to remedy that problem. If you'd like, I'll just tell you the recommendations. We'll tell you how we arrived at them. It's in the report.
We've simply said that we will ask Ms. Bell.... She'll have the option of Bill C-295 being debated in the House of Commons for a second hour, but the bill would be declared non-votable. Or she can advise the Speaker, in writing, within five days of the adoption of this report, that she wishes to have Bill C-295 withdrawn and the order of second reading discharged, and that she will be given 20 sitting days from the adoption of this report to specify another item of private members' business. Notwithstanding any other Standing Order, such item will be immediately placed at the bottom of the order of precedence and such item will be entitled to two hours of debate and shall be votable and subject to the application of Standing Orders 86 to 89.
In essence, we're giving her a choice of remedy from doing nothing and debating her bill, doing nothing and dropping her bill, or putting another bill forward and hoping that we can amend the Standing Orders at a future committee meeting to make sure that this does not happen again. That's the second report of the Subcommittee on Private Members' Business.