Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak to this, not because I think we should be debating this bill at 7.50 p.m. but because I would like to set the record straight as to exactly what has gone on here.
I am sure a good number of the members over there have no idea what they just voted for. They were told to vote and they did. Be that as it may, the general public should understand exactly what has happened here tonight. We have a system of doing business here in the House of Commons. We have an orderly order of business for a regular day. It starts at a certain time and ends at a certain time. We have an orderly calendar. Week in, week out we know where we are going to be on which week and at which time.
This allows the order of business to be conducted with some decorum and some decency in this place. With the odd exception up until recent years that was kept day in, day out by the government side. It realized that if it wanted this place to be productive it would work in co-operation with the opposition.
For the record this is what has happened with two successive bills. We have dealt only with two bills in this Parliament, and what has been done? On the first bill the Liberals brought in time allocation which means the end of debate. One day of debate, seven hours of debate, and it is finished. It is shuffled off. If the government had its way, the bill would be shuffled off and forgotten. Because the first bill was the pension bill we were not prepared to do that.
Furthermore, it was without any consultation by the other side that it brought in time allocation on the first bill. Kaboom, she comes in, no consultation, no debate. It is just the end of the debate. Canadians who wonder why this 73% increase in CPP premiums, why the changes to the seniors benefit, why all these tax law changes that affect seniors. They are not given a full hearing in the House. They are told “too bad, no debate in the House”. They sent members of Parliament here to debate but they are not allowed to debate because the idea of debate for those on that side of the House is debate just for a little while and then hopefully nobody will notice and we can shut down.
What have the Liberals done today? They have pulled another procedural stunt. At the last hour of debate the government can stand up and move a motion. It made the motion to extend hours indefinitely, day and night, until this bill is dealt with.
This is another pension bill, another tax bill for seniors whom the government should be concerned about, another bill that the opposition on this side of the House says it wants to hold debate on over two or three days. Is that too much to ask? Of course it is not.
Canadians want us to debate tax bills and important international tax bills before the House. On behalf of our constituents, it is our duty to stand on our record and stand up here and be counted. What happens over there is that the government says “We cannot have that. One day is enough. One day is all you get”. It then moves this motion to extend the hours day and night as if the proper way to conduct business is until the lights go out or until the day is done and not even then; all night it wants to debate. It is telling us if we want to debate we must stay up all night.
That is not orderly business. Orderly business is ladies and gentlemen on both sides of this House asking each other how many speakers they have.