Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of debating an amendment by the Reform Party which is Motion No. 5 under the third group. What the member is asking in this motion is that we go back to the old process of the issue of annual reports to the House.
I would like to suggest to the House that the proposal put forward by the Reformers is somewhat bizarre in that they located this particular amendment in part II of the bill. Part II of the bill refers to the Canada Employment Insurance Commission. I am not quite sure of the rationale of why it is in part II. Nonetheless, we find it a little strange.
Members will be aware that annual reports are generally being eliminated due to the fact that the information is contained in part III of the estimates. Members will also be aware that one of the most important parts of this whole reform we are dealing with as it relates to part III of the estimates is that in most cases by the time we get the annual report it is outdated and not applicable to what we are doing in this place.
The member for Mission-Coquitlam mentioned the reason for putting this in place. However, as opposition members they think there is a Russian spy under every rock, that the Government of Canada cannot be trusted and that it will renege on its promise to improve the estimates. They feel they have to protect themselves
by having annual reports which nobody reads and which are so outdated that it is a waste of money for the Government of Canada.
Again that is another motion Reform has put forward. On the one hand the members of the Reform talk about trying to save money and then they present a motion that will cost us money. We can do it better by revising the process to better reflect the needs of parliamentarians and by making part III of the estimates more applicable.
I want to end my remarks by saying what I have said about some of the other more unique proposals of the Reform Party. This government has very little choice but to reject this proposal which only serves to duplicate information readily available from other sources. Just how much information do these folks need? Either they can read or they cannot. We cannot just continue to give them document after document and they still say that somehow all these Russian moles are running around spying on us and the Liberals are part of the problem.
I would suggest to the Reform members not to be so paranoid. I can say from experience that most people in the House are here for good, solid reasons. They care about the country and they want to keep the country together. There really is no conspiracy theory necessary. The sooner they get used to the fact that we are all very interested in helping the country, the less nonsense we will have with motions like this one.