Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. I would like to concur with with remarks of the member who brought forward that point.
As I understand it, a motion to extend the sitting hours can only occur in the last hour that the House is sitting. Government Orders were extended because of Statements by Ministers and that last hour did not occur, according to the Table, until 5.06 p.m. The order to extend the hours was brought in before five o'clock, which meant that opposition parties could not be ready for that particular extension or prepared to oppose the extension of hours because we were not in the last hour yet.
We tried to rise on a point of order, but the bells had already begun to ring. I do not know how we could have protested this. However, I would agree with the Bloc member that the motion for the extension of hours was inappropriate and outside the standing orders, and opposition parties were not able to respond because of the timing of the motion.
The motion should not have been accepted by the Chair. It was out of order and it should have been ruled out of order at that time.