It's a point of order with respect to the motion to amend.
Bill C-56 as you know, Mr. Chair, would establish a scheme to provide for the payment of special EI benefits to self-employed workers who are not currently entitled to receive them. Premiums for the special benefits are set out in part VII.1 of Bill C-56, and since the bill would increase government spending, the bill is accompanied by a royal recommendation, as we know. The member has proposed an amendment that would change the manner in premium rates for EI special benefits and how they're calculated. The amendment would add an additional calculation for reducing employer and employee premiums, and this would increase the EI program costs by reducing premium rates for self-employed workers. By amending the manner in which the premium rates for EI benefits are calculated, the amendment would alter the conditions of the royal recommendation for Bill C-56, and citation 596 of the sixth edition of Beauchesne's Parliamentary Rules and Forms, which states:
...an amendment infringes the financial initiative of the Crown not only if it increases the amount but also if it extends the objects and purposes, or it relaxes the conditions and qualifications expressed in the communication by which the Crown has demanded or recommended a charge.
Page 767 of the second edition of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice, and I quote:
Since an amendment may not infringe upon the financial initiatives of the Crown, it is inadmissible if it imposes a charge on the public treasury....
I would therefore ask that this motion to amend the bill be ruled out of order.