As I was saying, this system was established informally with the previous whip.
May I suggest there have been a number of occasions in the past when whips have sometimes indicated that they were voting yea as opposed to nay. Whips across the floor of the House would heckle informally or indicate informally: "No, that is not what you want to do", in an effort to assist each other because this informal understanding has been established with the stated purpose of condensing a process which formerly took several hours.
In order to make the system work even better, an informal document is exchanged among the various whips and given to the Table so if there is an occasional slip-up in the process, it is corrected.
Again, the then whip for the Reform Party would recognize how this was established co-operatively among all whips. I am referring here to the member for Calgary Centre.
The point I am making is that this is an informal system which was established among the whips. Whips have traditionally assisted each other in order to accurately reflect the intention of each respective party in the House and it was done that way.
We could revert to the system which existed before. The system which was in place before costs approximately $25,000 an hour. I believe it costs approximately $17,000 an hour to work regular overtime and $25,000 an hour for extended time. Even the process we used last night could have cost perhaps $100,000 to $150,000 and instead cost nothing to the taxpayers of Canada because we had developed this informal system with all the goodwill that had, up until now, been there. I only wish that the goodwill we have had may prevail after today as it has over the last year since establishing the system.
We had an extremely effective working relationship in the past with the previous whip. I hope it will remain identical with the present occupant of that position on that side of the House. It is my considered belief that when members cease to be able to function with each other, where there are disagreements-and there have been some of those today-that the whips can quickly rally behind the curtain, find out what the disagreement is among members and then hopefully assist each other in making the House work better and assisting Mr. Speaker in his job of serving all of us. That is the system under which we have all operated individually and collegially as a group of whips in the past.
I hope we can continue to assist each other in order to reflect the intention of the House and not try as whips to trip each other up at every possible opportunity.
There is the cut and thrust of debate in the House. That is fair game. I appreciate that. Heaven knows I was a member of that group for longer than many. However, in our role as whips there is also the very close working relationship we have had with each other. I hope and pray that will continue, not for my good, but for the good of this institution and for our country.