I'm very disappointed to see this motion before committee. I have a number of concerns with the motion. One of the concerns I have, of course, is that this is a blatant attempt to circumvent the rights of members to move motions in the House. It would be independent members, of course—independent members who are not members of standing committees—and it seems pretty clear that this is an effort to prevent independent members from moving amendments in the House at report stage, which would then have us voting all night. I would argue that this is contrary to a democratic process. I also think that it will seriously impact on the ability of the committee to do its work. We're going to end up having people coming into our committee who have not heard witness testimony, who have not been part of the discussions. They could be moving amendments contrary to what the will of the committee is. I'm very surprised to see this come forward.
The other issue is that given the fact that, sadly, we have seen efforts to put time allocation at committee, how is that going to impact on our ability as members of the standing committee to engage in discussion? At another committee I was on, a motion came forward and the government said the bill must be reported back by such-and-such a date. Then they limited the amount of time for amendments. We were allowed to speak to each amendment for only five minutes. Are we then going to allocate time to independent members who come forward? It raises questions about whether the committee then becomes master of its own fate when we can have people from outside coming into the committee and utilizing committee time. Clearly, we won't be supporting this motion.