Mr. Speaker, I want to comment briefly on this question of privilege.
I assure the hon. member opposite that as far as the official opposition is concerned the spirit and principles contained in the 13th report of the Standing Committee of Procedure and House Affairs are not up for negotiations.
What the House leaders will attempt to do is find a swift and convenient means to get these draft standing orders changed before all members of the House for a decision.
I accept that there is a leadership in the House. While I hope that leadership can come to a unanimous decision, it is not a requirement to advance the progress on this very important matter. We make progress in this House with unanimity or without unanimity.
Speaking for the private members of the official opposition in the House, we are not going to back away just because there is no unanimity. The way I see it, if all the House leaders agree then a motion will be moved by unanimous consent. If there is no unanimity then we move the motion under the rubric motions during Routine Proceedings.
I have considered all other options with the following observations other than that process I just described. The first is Private Members' Business. The terms of consideration for a motion under Private Members' Business would be subject to the luck of the draw. A follow-up motion complying with an order of the House should not be subject to a draw. I would discount that.
A supply motion would do the same trick to some extent. It may not be appropriate to implement a measure affecting private members, a majority of whom sit on the government side the House, with an opposition motion. In addition, there are precious few votable opposition motions available to the opposition to be used to implement minor rule changes on which the House already pronounced itself last week.
Finally, I looked at the government orders and the government has the most opportunities and flexibility to introduce and move motions. However, I agree with the member's argument that the House, independent of the government, adopted the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
While I would welcome the government's initiative in this regard, the responsibility to implement the details of these rule changes is not at this stage of the game a matter of ministerial responsibility. The motion that was adopted by the House did not ask the government to bring forward these changes. This is clearly a matter for the House to consider and it is not the prerogative of the government.
I recognize that for the most part the only motion a private member can move during Routine Proceedings is a motion to concur in a committee report. However, there are extraordinary circumstances where a private member can move a motion under motions. This was done in the last parliament by the member for Crowfoot. The extraordinary circumstances in that case was that the Standing Committee on Justice refused to report a private member's bill back to the House.
While the government has many tools at its disposal to deal with a similar situation for a government bill, a private member does not. The Speaker recognized this extraordinary circumstance and quite correctly interpreted the rules to provide a mechanism for a private member.
The circumstances today are also extraordinary and when Mr. Speaker considers all options, as I just did, there is only one logical conclusion. A motion to comply with the order of the House from November 4, 1998 regarding standing order changes can be moved by unanimous consent or under motions during routine proceedings.
I believe the timing of these changes is crucial. One of the aspects of the changes would be to protect private members' motions or bills from prorogation. Prorogation is a bill killer. It is well known that cabinet does not like some of the initiatives of the backbench of late and may be tempted to use its bill killing powers to silence them and put them in their place. The government backbench and the opposition have effectively filled the policy void of this government. For this reason cabinet may be the biggest obstacle for the implementation of these new rule changes.
However, if it wants to kill this initiative it will have to do it democratically. And in case it has not noticed, there are more of us than there are of its members, unless the Prime Minister appoints 151 ministers to his cabinet. He is going to lose this one. The private member is going to win.