Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Badawey, I respect that I intervened while you were trying to talk, and I apologize for that. It's definitely a very passionate discussion, and we're actually having a discussion here tonight. I want to touch briefly on the travel schedule and the Friday issue.
The local MPs can get home on a Friday. As Mr. Doherty discussed, if we extend Thursday sittings, I can't get out on a Thursday night so it means I have to get up at about 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Ottawa time. The plane might touch down by 11 a.m.
I don't get back to my riding.... The plane might touch down by 11 a.m., which is already 2 p.m. Ottawa time, after a 4 a.m. start. Really, I have a few hours on a Friday afternoon, and that's it for business hours.
If I were expected to do that every week the House is sitting.... We have Fridays off. That's what the public will see.
My suggestion is that if we're going to change this, let's change the number of sitting weeks. Let's sit for some longer hours in the weeks we're here so that we have fewer sitting weeks and we can truly be home in our constituencies.
I represent one of the largest ridings in British Columbia, not as large as Mr. Doherty's or Mr. Zimmer's. Corner to corner across my riding is probably between an eight- and 12-hour drive. I've never done it yet, corner to corner. But it's eight to 12 hours. I've talked to members who have a 20-minute drive, corner to corner, across their riding.
I represent nine municipalities, four different MLAs, and about 15 regional districts. I can't do that on a Friday afternoon. If we have extra sitting hours and fewer sitting weeks, I'd be able to do this more often.
We can't get to a discussion on this because we can't agree to do these changes with unanimous consent. That's what this discussion has become about. If we could sit and discuss all of these issues and reach unanimous consent on whatever those issues are, I'm certain this committee could move forward in a much quicker manner.
We've had much discussion among the committee members, but I don't think it's the committee members sitting here who are making the decisions on this. I think that if they were, we would really look at why we're here. It's to make constructive changes. If those constructive changes were agreed to through unanimous consent, I think we wouldn't find ourselves sitting here until 9:30 tonight, or midnight, or whatever it might be. I understand you were here until 3:45 a.m. That's incredible dedication, and that's very evident around the room and given the number of people who are here.
We need to have an open discussion and we need to have the end result be a unanimous decision. The rules are put in place not for the leaders in the game. Rules are put in place, in any game, to make it fair for all, even the underdogs. They make it fair for all. If we're going to change the rules to what the current majority wants, then all of the players in the game are going to suffer.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I would just like to mention my appreciation for Mr. Christopherson's leniency towards these lengthy interventions.