Mr. Speaker, I also was a substitute member on that committee for a portion of last evening and starting at roughly 4.45 a.m. today.
It is well known by you, Mr. Speaker, that committees are masters of their own business. That is a principle that has long been accepted by Parliament and in previous rulings. Need I remind the Chair of the ruling on the Lachance case in the early 1980s as well as the ruling on what is known commonly as the Blenkarn report on the goods and services tax.
Furthermore, in the unlikely event, Mr. Speaker, that you were to review the proceedings of the committee you would find that in no case was any vote in a position whereby one person would have changed the vote. In fact for virtually all votes we had scores of 6:2 that were registered; in other words six people carrying each clause versus two against. The only exceptions I remember during the whole night were the odd votes on which one member of the Reform Party voted with the government making the score 7:1 instead of 6:2.
To review what I said previously, whether or not the vote deems that it is appropriate for him to review the business of the committee would not change the outcome of the vote. In any case, Mr. Speaker, sustaining the precedents I have brought to your attention I think you would rule that in cases such as these the Speaker has not interfered with the reports of committees in the past.