Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I find it difficult to believe that we are going to implement a system that would enable us to conduct investigations, issue convictions and apply sanctions. It is already difficult for us to enforce the Standing Orders of the House through the Speaker. By this, I do not mean to say that I blame him. Nevertheless, members make inadmissible statements in the House, but never lose their right to speak. I find it difficult to see how we could implement a system and apply it judicially.
However, we all took an oath of office and of allegiance when we were elected. When members are re-elected, they must take this oath again. I think that we should remind members of this oath of allegiance. We should instead rely on new or refreshed education methods. Often, documents are distributed during a committee meeting and members, as Mr. Godin mentioned, forget that the meeting was in camera.
As Ms. O'Brien said, it is so frequent that we no longer pay attention, when we get documents from the House concerning changes to the Standing Orders or to our expense account rates, since all these documents are marked for members only or confidential. The notion of confidentiality or privileged information is lost. I think that instead we should make recommendations to the House, so that these terms are used with a great deal more diligence and care.
Mr. Lukiwski said earlier that there was a difference between those situations where someone accidentally made a mistake and where somebody deliberately did something. A sin confessed is half forgiven, as they say. Does this mean that we would impose a $5,000 fine to those who do not admit their mistake, but we would reduce this penalty to $2,500 for those who do admit it, as if the confession made the transgression less serious?
We risk finding ourselves in an impossible administrative maze with a system like that. I don't see how we could avoid paralyzing the work of our committee and other committees. We would have to apply the system to all committees. I don't think other committees have the necessary abilities to enforce such a Standing Order or sanctions. This would ultimately become the responsibility of the Standing Committee on Procedure. I think that we're wasting our time and that this system would lead to problems.
However, I insist on the fact that there should be, both for new elected members and other members, a training or education period. Special attention should be paid to identifying truly confidential documents. I am not talking here about the agenda or the document index, but rather an indication about the whole document, even if it is repeated on every page. There are now electronic tools for this. All members should also be reminded of their oath of office and of allegiance.