moved:
Motion No. 13
That Bill C-41, in Clause 11, be amended by adding the following after line 11 on page 14:
"26.2 (1) The Minister of Justice shall have each proposed guideline laid before the House of Commons.
(2) Each proposed guideline that is laid before the House of Commons shall, on the day it is laid, be referred by that House to an appropriate committee of that House, as determined by the rules of that House, and that committee shall report its findings to that House.
(3) A proposed guideline that has been laid pursuant to subsection (1) may be established on the expiration of thirty sitting days after it was laid.
(4) For the purpose of this section, "sitting day" means a day on which the House of Commons sits."
Mr. Speaker, Group No. 3 consists of one motion proposed by the Reform Party. This amendment deals with clause 11 on page 14. It would add a whole new subsection, 26.2, to Bill C-41. It states in part:
26.2 (1) The Minister of Justice shall have each proposed guideline laid before the House of Commons.
(2) Each proposed guideline that is laid before the House of Commons shall, on the day it is laid, be referred by that House to an appropriate committee of that House, as determined by the rules of that House, and that committee shall report its findings to the House.
(3) A proposed guideline that has been laid pursuant to subsection (1) may be established on the expiration of thirty sitting days after it was laid.
(4) For the purpose of this section, "sitting day" means a day on which the House of Commons sits.
What does that mean? Very simply put, Reform has been saying the same thing over and over again in this place for the past three years, ever since almost all Reformers have been in the House of Commons. We feel very strongly that the committees and the House should be allowed to look at these guidelines.
We are very uncomfortable with the fact that here is another instance-similar to the guidelines for Bill C-68, the gun control legislation-where the government wants to take care of things behind closed doors. It wants the cabinet to make the decision by order in council. The House and the committees of the House will not have the opportunity to debate or to look at the guidelines. The House and committees will not have the opportunity to find out what the guidelines are until they are actually cemented into place. To be quite frank, we find that type of behaviour inexcusable even though it goes on and on as more bills are brought into this place by this Liberal government.
This is just the latest example of the Liberals superseding the authority of the House and its committees. They will draft the guidelines which will be imposed on the citizens of the country without those citizens having their elected representatives be given the opportunity to properly debate them and propose potential amendments. We cannot bring up issues of concern that we feel would make sense and are concerns of a lot of our constituents.
That is why the Reform Party brought forward Motion No. 13. Perhaps at this point in time we will just leave it go at that.