Mr. Speaker, I wish to clarify something in this debate since I was the whip for the Reform Party at the time mentioned by the whip for the Bloc.
I had understood that negotiations and exploration of issues between whips were confidential. Now we have the whip for the Bloc accusing and misrepresenting what those negotiations actually did. I object to that. That is not the kind of behaviour one would expect from someone of goodwill.
Mr. Speaker, as you are aware because you were part of the discussions, the talk about chairmanships and vice-chairmanships of committees hinged around our contention that the Bloc was getting a disproportionate share of air time on question period. In order to quiet down those objections the Bloc made this offer of the vice-chairmanships of some of the minor committees.
In our view the air time on question period and the proportion of questions asked should not be mixed up with vice-chairmanships of committees. That was our objection at the time. It remains our objection. It certainly should not be used to suggest that we are not interested in vice-chairmanships of committees. We just do not think those kinds of tradeoffs are appropriate.
We have a situation in the House where there are two opposition parties, one of which is wanting to break up the country and one of which wants to get on with the national agenda. We think there should be fairness and parity at the very least in this situation, and that is what we are asking for in this point of order.