Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to present this motion. With all due respect to those who have to leave by 1 o'clock or have other meetings that they need to be at, let me read the motion: That any Member of the Committee have the right to issue a dissenting opinion on any report presented to Parliament by the Committee within the conditions imposed by the Committee and in accordance with the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, and call for debate to be limited to 10 minutes, respecting the fact that we have other places to go.
Mr. Chair, I look at this as a friendly motion, and I've talked to all parties involved. I go back to the dark days when I was an opposition member of this House, and I was often looking for an opportunity, as an opposition member, to voice my opinion, which may not have been the opinion of the entire committee. In my discussions with the clerk, I find out that probably this is simply a housekeeping motion that we should have done at the beginning of this term, and we didn't do that.
So to me, Mr. Chair, this is simply cleaning up an oversight that this committee failed to cover. It provides an opportunity to all members of this committee—every member of the opposition and every member of the government side—if they don't agree with a report coming out of this committee, to make that public statement that they don't necessarily agree with the report coming out of that committee.
It's an expression of democracy, and that's the way I would like to put this forward.
I'm looking forward to the support of everyone. I'm certainly looking for unanimous support for this.