It's simply to answer a couple of points, and I do agree with Mr. Owen. I take no offence to what he's just said, but even at the outset of this meeting the criterion that was used and why the subcommittee ruled the current matter non-votable were stated, so it's not as if what criterion was used or how it was arrived at is an unknown factor.
I understand that because it was an in camera session it sure seems that way, but we do at least come out with the criterion as to what happened there.
I would also like to refer to the fact that the similarity between these two bills is what we're trying to discuss today. But I would remind the group that we got here somewhat a different way too, because Bill C-257, which we're preparing, was also similar to another bill. Bill C-257 was Mr. Nadeau's bill and the other one Ms. Bell's, and we were even charged by the Speaker to come up with a way of making sure this doesn't happen again, so that we find it non-votable at the appropriate time in the process rather than both of them getting to the House and having to be ruled out of order there--to come up with some remedy. And that's truly what happened with Ms. Bell's bill, which was substantially similar to Mr. Nadeau's bill. We couldn't find one of them non-votable, so we had to rewrite the criteria.
We've now rewritten the criteria so that we catch it at the appropriate spot in the process so it can't happen again, and we've tried to write--and it's been accepted as a report of this committee---the remedies for how we could address it if it does happen again.
We certainly have spent a lot of time on the subject matter of a bill respecting the Labour Code/replacement workers. We've seen three bills in the House that came forward with some substantial similarity on that, and that's why we looked at it that way.
To answer one of the questions that Mr. Silva brought forward about some previous Speakers' rulings--I understand that there are some there--as Mr. Hill said, some of these rulings took place during the time when private members' bills were treated substantially differently from the way they are treated today. So I recognize that a ruling made in 1980 was maybe under the rules that Mr. Hill was talking about, where you went and pleaded your case before whole committees and so on, and so I'll have to assume that maybe it was before the time....
To address Mr. Hill's point, I believe that the subcommittee will not take it personally but will certainly keep in the back of its mind that this committee is here for us to report to, and that's why the levels of appeal first bring it back to this committee for right of appeal. However, if that's just going to be the case each and every time, then why does the subcommittee actually exist and why don't we do the business at the full committee?