Thanks, Chair.
I am just seeking a piece of information, if that's possible.
When I thought this thing through a couple of weeks ago, trying to get a sense of where the government was going to go, one of the options that existed was to bypass what's happening here and go straight to the House. That was before you withdrew some of the most controversial parts. There still may be the possibility that once that motion is in the House, you're likely going to use closure, because you can't use time allocation on a motion. We are getting close to the end of the session, or at least we'll be into June, probably. When I thought that through, the only thing that made any sense.... Given the nature of it and the closure, it seemed to me that the government would want to do this as close as possible to the rising of the House because of the chaos and the mood that could be created.
Had they done all of them originally, the place would have been unmanageable. I don't know if it will be that bad, but it could be. I am only raising this because if we know that it's likely to come later in the sitting rather than earlier, that gives us a lot more opportunity to incorporate the kind of flexibility that you were looking for, Arnold.
In terms of recognizing that the government has an agenda, Mr. Reid is suggesting that, notwithstanding the politics that would have the government eventually bring it to the House, it's still a good idea to get the benefit of committee. Mr. Reid, I don't know if people are picking up on that point, but if you've been around for any time at all, you begin to appreciate making these kinds of small changes, a little here and there, to try to do that. It's hard enough for us to do it. If you try to do that in the House, with 338 people and the rules that we have, it's very difficult. What you end up with is a government that finally just gets kind of bloody-minded and says, “We can't be dealing with all these little pieces”, and they just ram it through.
Any time that can be spent here at committee, where we are actually talking about those issues, can only be helpful. It's easier for us to do that if we have a sense that this motion is coming later in the sitting rather than earlier.