Mr. Speaker, the issue raised by the hon. member this morning may be different from the incident raised yesterday.
No doubt it is a parallel one involving the same committee. The Speaker's previous ruling on the issue brought by another hon. member the day before would be applicable to the case before the House this morning.
Furthermore, yesterday the committee of procedure and House affairs, pursuant to part of the ruling by the Speaker, has been doing some preliminary work in the whole area of rules as they apply to the work of committees.
We adopted a motion proposed by one of the members who has at least attempted to rise on a question of privilege this morning from the Reform Party to address those very rules.
Earlier this morning there were informal negotiations to attempt to solve the dispute at hand. I do not want to describe them as it would be improper. I am hoping we will continue those discussions in the next few minutes to come to some kind of consensus by which we can afford the House to function properly in its committees.
I recognize, as the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands has said, the importance of the work of the opposition in the House. The Deputy Prime Minister and I have probably served longer in opposition than anyone else in the Chamber. We served too long in opposition.
In any case, we recognize that situation and we are attempting through some of these negotiations to resolve it. I hoped to continue with those private negotiations prior to this question of privilege.