Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will use my very humble experience as one of the chair's occupants. If you recall, I questioned Mr. Marleau in that sense. The Speaker has all the tools he needs to quieten everything down. You all know, of course, that as soon as the Speaker stands up from his chair, all the microphones are shut down. All the Speaker has to do is stand up. He has different orders to keep...I won't call it “peace” again, because Mr. Guimond would like it, but he has all the powers to keep everybody civilized.
My impression is that our present Speaker does not want to be more strict. He does not want to penalize people. He sees himself—and I think he's right 99.9% of the time—as a facilitator for all the MPs to express themselves in the House.
If you were to compare...and we have members here who have had experiences elsewhere, Madame Robillard has been in the National Assembly in Quebec, some of you gentlemen have been in provincial legislatures—speakers have powers. They have the tools to keep everybody quiet to a certain level. My main concern is that the Speaker currently hesitates to use some of his powers because he sees himself, as I was saying, as a facilitator. If we give him powers that will be even more “damaging”, let me say, to the reputations of MPs, he won't use them. He will stay away from them even more than he does now.
So it is all a question of attitude. It's a question of us asking the Speaker to please use his powers, and for us, as parties, to discipline our people within our own ranks.