Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-101 respecting the Canada Transportation Act. In my capacity as chairperson of SCOT I had originally planned to speak to the bill after committee review. I believe it is my first duty to hear and evaluate the concerns and issues raised by various stakeholders who may be affected by the legislation to ensure an effective legislative process.
Speaking of process, I was listening very carefully to the misleading statements made by the member for Kootenay West-Revelstoke and felt compelled to respond. A full seven minutes of the ten-minute slot allotted to the member to speak to Bill C-101 were devoted to procedural matters that were not at all relevant to the substance of the bill. Plain and simple, the member chose to play politics, something the third party promised not to do when elected to the House.
Bill C-101 was introduced in the House by the Minister of Transport on June 20. Privileged to be the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Transport, I attempted with the consensus of committee members, as stated in my letter to the stakeholders dated July 17, 1995, to "solicit written submissions throughout the remainder of July and August in order to ensure that you and other stakeholders have ample opportunity to apprise committee members of your concerns prior to formal consideration of the legislation in the fall".
In other words, I first appealed to the opposition members of both parties to proceed with a pre-study of the bill. The notion was flatly rejected. Step two was to make an appeal to the stakeholders, as previously stated, to send along their written submissions to give committee members, especially members of the third party, an idea of the concerns raised by stakeholders as early in the process as possible.
I asked them to prepare not 25 copies as alleged by the member for Kootenay West-Revelstoke earlier this day but 15 copies, if possible, to cut down on committee expenses, something else the third party preaches ad nauseam. We also asked that submissions be sent in both official languages. Unfortunately many were not. Therefore, before the clerk could circulate the submissions, we had to have them translated and that takes time.