I want to say the same thing that Mr. Christopherson said in his very first remarks. If this comes to the House of Commons, I would be voting against it. It's not a policy that I could support. Having said that, I do want to respond to the question about deference.
A suggestion was made that we ought to defer to the subcommittee. I just disagree. This is a language issue, perhaps, between Mr. Bittle and me, as opposed to a substantive difference maybe, but by definition you don't defer to a body that is subordinate to you.
When the courts deal with an item that has been dealt with on appeal from a lower court, they adopt a language of respect. They respectfully disagree. They go to great lengths in their language to demonstrate that they are respectful of the thoughtfulness of the body with whose decision they are disagreeing. Nonetheless, they disagree.
The body we defer to is the House of Commons. We are the subordinate body of the House of Commons. By taking away the right of the House of Commons to consider this potential piece of legislation, we are actually being the opposite of deferential, and there is no court of appeal for our decision. Effectively, we kill it before the House can hear it.
I know there is a way. If the sponsor can get a signature from a member of the majority of the parties in the House—he himself does not represent a recognized party, so this is a doubly hard task for the member—then he can have it go to the House, where we decide by secret ballot whether it lives or dies.
That is a tough criterion to meet, particularly since it seems that the real point of all of this is to get the governing party, the Liberals, off the hook of having to vote on something that splits them on a regional basis. I would maintain that it is not our business to make life politically easier for one of the parties—