Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. I really appreciate your presence. I simply want to put it on the record that it is an honour to work with you and your entire House team on moving the government's legislation forward.
I want to follow up on some of the very early line of questioning from Mr. Dubé related to when you first issued your discussion paper that proposed changes to the Standing Orders. He raised the issue of consensus. One of the motions that was brought forward before this committee, in response to Mr. Simms' original motion that had tried to move that discussion forward within this particular committee, was the notion that all of the recognized parties actually needed unanimity for any changes to move forward in the Standing Orders.
I wanted your thoughts on that particular concept between the notion of consensus and unanimity, on whether it is in fact appropriate that no changes can move forward unless all recognized political parties agree to those particular changes in the Standing Orders. I find that this kind of threshold would be exceptionally difficult to meet, and that it would ossify the Standing Orders. They are, from my perspective, a living document that needs to evolve with practices in the reality of the House in modern times. I wanted your thoughts with respect to the difference between the notion of consensus and the notion of unanimity. I think the latter in fact suggests that it essentially grants a particular veto to one political party, which I think is a very high threshold to meet.