Mr. Chair, if this is the only section the government wishes to alter, we may get through it; we have two hours. But my experience is that we're going to end up with a lot of debate about this.
I know, Mr. Moore, you haven't explained the change. It's not my recollection that the steering committee was dysfunctional in any way the last time. My very firm view is that it would be inappropriate for a committee of this House to structure a parliamentary secretary as an explicit piece of the structure. I would have no objection to Mr. Moore, as a member of the committee, being on the steering committee. But for us to patently incorporate a government office into our committee structure runs contrary to the constitutional function of the House. Mr. Moore will recall very clearly, as may some other government members, the position of the Conservative Party and its predecessor in the last Parliament, where they actually moved motions that parliamentary secretaries not even be allowed to sit on committees.
The government party has made a huge about-face here, and it invites from opposition a number of nouns and adjectives I'm not going to use now. But I would at least hope that Mr. Moore would be in a position to explain why the previous steering committee structure didn't work well enough from his point of view and why it is necessary for a steering committee to create a committee of six people, which would make it much more cumbersome, much more difficult to get the members together. The main function of that committee is talking about future business, not selecting it, and the selection of witnesses. Perhaps Mr. Moore could address that.
I'm going to debate this at some length, if I can, and I will continue to debate it here today. I'd like to get the routine motions passed, but I'd like to hear Mr. Moore as well. I'm suggesting to the chair that we stand down this particular one until we get all the non-controversial routine motions passed, and then we could continue discussion on this and any other matter there might be an amendment to.