I know he has another engagement later this evening, so I will yield the floor at some point to allow him to have that opportunity. However, before I do that, I do want to briefly talk a little bit about Walter Baker's proposals for committees. Specifically, he opened the discussion with this:
It should be noted that the committee's role is expanded to improve the accountability of government, not to give to committees executive functions. Committees may hold serious investigations against the will of the Government, which is not presently possible, and pursue that investigation through to a report to the House, and even concurrence by the House. But concurrence would not be, in constitutional terms, a binding direction to the Government. Clearly a government which ignored the opinion of the House in such a matter would invite political problems, and perhaps a specific motion of non-confidence. However, to view concurrence in a committee report as a binding direction on the executive would be to invite the destruction of the responsible Cabinet government. The significance of such a concurrence would be, in other words, political, not procedural.
We see this very often as we go about our functions as parliamentarians as we discuss committee work. The role of all committees of the House, whether it's the procedure and House affairs committee, the official languages committee, which I sit on, or the fisheries and oceans committee, is to hold the government accountable. Committees have a number of functions and ways in which they can do that, whether it's via review of the legislation that is specifically sent to them, or the studies they undertake within their mandate. Committees have an important role.
We'll notice that committees are not populated by the government; they are populated by members of Parliament. They are not creatures of a cabinet minister; they are the creatures of their own creation. That is exceptionally important in terms of where we go.
I'm going to get into some of the specific proposals, but at this point I'm going to yield the floor.
I would ask, Mr. Chair, could I be put back on the speakers list?