Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak on the point of order raised by the hon. member for Hamilton-Wentworth. We previously brought to the attention of the House the fact that legislation submitted to committee prior to second reading has not had proper analysis at the committee level and has been denied adequate debate in the House.
Once the legislation goes to committee it does not come here for second reading, one of the most extensive reviews of legislation available to members of the House. That is gone. We are limited to a 180-minute debate just to review sending the legislation to committee, not to review the contents of the legislation.
When we agreed to this change in the rules we thought the potential was there to make committee work much more meaningful. However we have experienced in committee clause by clause study of legislation that is restricted to a few seconds per clause or a minute or so per clause. Things are rammed through. Then without second reading we came to third reading where the bill is approved in principle and no further amendments could be brought forth by members.