Mr. Speaker, I want to respond very briefly to some of the points that have been raised.
First, there is a major difference between this initiative and the one of 1991. This time we are offering an enabling motion and the bills are reintroduced afterward. They are not introduced automatically by way of the motion. That is the first point.
Second, Mr. Speaker will surely recognize and recall that there was a very interesting debate in which a member of the Reform Party, namely the member for Lethbridge, offered a very constructive suggestion to bring back bills that had already reached a certain stage in the previous session. In fact, what the government House leader has done is precisely that.
I just heard a bit of heckling from an hon. member from the Reform Party who said that was only for private members' bills. Imagine the following proposition. The government in a different Parliament had attempted to resuscitate only government bills and that was deemed to be wrong. Now the Reform Party's solution is
to only reinstate opposition motions or bills and that would presumably, according to their criteria, make it right.
As the hon. House leader stated, if the arguments made by the Reform Party some weeks ago were correct, then surely the arguments would apply equally to opposition members as they would to government members. In fact, the enabling motion offered by the government House leader today proposes a mechanism whereby members, if they wish, can revive their own bills within a 30 day time frame. It does not resuscitate or revive all bills, but for those members who wish to bring them back, it brings back to the House in an accelerated mechanism bills that had passed second reading. For instance, there could be bills where the solution has already been offered.
Some parliamentarians may choose not to proceed with certain bills. That is their choice. We are still entitled in this House to adopt a practical mechanism such as proposed by the member for Lethbridge. However, if he were right, his reasoning in my opinion would have to apply to both sides of the House. Parliamentarians on both sides must be equally entitled to return bills to the stage they were at prior to prorogation.
In brief, this is the decision the Chair will have to make to put an end to this debate. I hope the Chair will decide the government may proceed with the consideration of this motion.
The Reform and Bloc members have not convinced the Chair, I think, or at least they have not convinced me of the merits of their argument. The argument remains perfectly valid in that we have a motion before us which is entirely in keeping with our rules.