Thank you. They do happen, those real points of order.
I believe I was making a final summary reference to this document. My friend has now asked that it be circulated to all members.
We forget how many people there are who follow these things and who care very much about these matters. They would want access, so I would hope that we could make that available if we get any public requests, given that we're in this unusual situation, Chair, and that if somebody did happen to contact the clerk of the committee you might feel comfortable in ensuring that a copy goes out, or at the very least, that it be.... Of course, they could always call any one of our caucuses, the House leaders for our caucuses, our caucus chairs. Any member, actually, would eventually find them a copy of it.
Again, I want to leave this subject on this one important point, that is, this at least represents the opposition benches trying to do something. Where's the government's suggestion?
The only thing we've heard, and it's not even formal—there's nothing on paper—is that there might be some consideration to move the deadline from June to sometime in the fall, but as I've said, without changing the fact that the government wants the unilateral right to ram through anything we can't agree on by consensus, it matters not to us whether that guillotine flies in June, October, November, or December. It's not the time of doing it that's the problem—it's the doing of it that's the problem.
To shift gears out of first, I would like to spend a little time talking about the report that was tabled the other night. Most importantly, this is a report from this committee, not one in the past, but this committee, meaning just PROC, in this Parliament, with this makeup of almost the same members. We haven't had too much change here.
You, Chair, have been the chair from the beginning, and the two vice-chairs have been in place from the beginning. That's important. This committee needs stability, because a lot of decisions made in the early part of the year can have implications later on, having set precedents for going forward later on in the year.
What's most edifying here is that the parallels aren't hard to find. It doesn't take a stretch to go from what this report is about to what we're talking about here, which is why the Speaker in the House last night allowed it to be discussed as a relevant part of the motion that was on the floor.
This report is the eleventh report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. That's us.
I might mention, Chair, just to give you fair warning, that later on tonight—much later—I'll be making a reference to the twenty-third report of this committee, which also is our interim report. I see you nodding your head. You know what it is; you presented it in the House. It's the interim report response. It was our first go-around of the low-lying fruit exercise that we had done, so I will be making some reference to that also.
Again, to summarize at the beginning where I'm about to go, I'm about to show that when this committee actually does work together, which we want to do and have a history of doing, we do good work. It's usually a little dangerous for politicians in a non-election period to be bragging, but I've been on a lot of committees in 30 plus years, and it's a good committee, and you're a good chair and we've done some good work. I think we could have done more good work. We were doing good work on the chief electoral report, which is exactly what this is about.
Here's what I want to speak to, Chair. I won't task you to separate where I might be crossing over and repeating things between two reports. I'm going to be talking about two distinct processes, and how one worked and how one is not. I won't go beyond that into any great detail on the one that is, except sufficiently to make the case that I'm doing. I won't go into that level of detail. If I start to slide in that direction, I know that I'll hear from you, sir.
As for that process, unlike this process, the other one started with respect. It started with an element of co-operation, Chair. You don't miss very many meetings, and I'm pretty sure you were here for that. If not, you would certainly be aware that not long into the new year, on January 28, 2016, the then House leader, Mr. LeBlanc.... Again, at committee we have a little more latitude. That's why committee work is important. That's why it matters whether or not we have the right to talk until we're done on this committee. I've known Dom—Mr. LeBlanc—for a long time. He was here when I got here. Like a lot of us, he's part of the furniture. He's been around a long time. He's respected, liked, and well known. No one was surprised when he ended up in a senior position as the government House leader.
He was kind enough to come to the meeting. He sat downstairs in room 112, in that general location, and he asked us—I would even go so far as to say he asked nicely—with a lot of respect, to please, as part of the parliamentary process, undertake a review of how we do things. I'm paraphrasing. He asked us to take a look at how we do things here, such as committee work, caucus work, work in the House, and travelling between our offices. He asked us to take a look at all of that and make suggestions that would make this Parliament more family friendly. It's a big undertaking, one that you would think couldn't work, really, unless you had co-operation.
Those of us who have been on the opposition benches for many years very much appreciated that the government House leader was asking this committee in exactly the way that was consistent with the election. This is my opinion now: it was consistent with what the government promised in the election, which was to show respect for committees, to listen to what the committees have to say, and to use the committees more as an integral part of Parliament, the real workhorse, rather than the view that the previous government seemed to have, which was that committees are mostly a nuisance, much in the way that they ultimately viewed Parliament.
Mr. LeBlanc's request was taken so seriously and co-operatively by this committee that while he came to see us on January 28, on February 2 we started our work. There was no acrimony. There were no accusations, no troublemaking, and no filibusters. We started working.
We worked on the principle that if we didn't all agree, it wouldn't go in the report. That does make for tougher work down the road, because the easy stuff will have been done and you're left with the tough stuff, but it did allow us to generate this report. It was amazing how often we did agree.
I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, because this report is worth considering.
To recap, on January 28 the newish government House leader came in for his first meeting with us. He asked us to co-operate to meet their objectives and their electoral platform. The first thing we said was “yes”. We respected the fact they had won the election and that they were a few months old. They had a mandate to do these kinds of things. There was a strong feeling in the House of members who wanted change, especially newer members, like those with young families. Unlike in the past. when that would almost always mean women, in this case right away it affected my new colleague Mr. Schmale, who is the father of a couple of young children and has a modern family. My sense is that, as much as his job allows, he is a hands-on dad, as much as he possibly can be, and he had as much interest in this subject as anyone else in the past, who might always have been women.
It wasn't gender-specific. There was a general sense in the House that we could do this better. We could make some changes that would make it easier for people with families, or, on the other end, for people who have some disabilities, or people who are older and can't go as long. There are lighting issues around danger, and distances. We still haven't dealt with a lot of that.
Just to give an example, Chair, I had a temporary problem with sciatica over the last few weeks. Anybody who has had sciatica knows how painful that is. I forget what I was doing, but it might have been one of these committees or something, and it was late. The buses only run until an hour after the House is sitting, no matter what else is going on. I walked out the door and it was really cold. I've learned that extreme cold adversely affects sciatica. All I could think was how I was not going to enjoy that walk. My office is at the justice building and my vehicle was parked beside the Supreme Court. That is an awfully long way to go. If I had any options, I normally wouldn't walk that far because of the damage it does.
I was so lucky that night. When I came out, one of the buses was there. Really, I thought I had won the lottery.