First of all, with respect to the question of privilege of the hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton, I do not consider the point which he brought up to be a challenge to my ruling. I want to make that understood at the outset.
I think what we have had here today is an airing of the ideas which were put forth.
I would like to recapitulate this issue for the House so that we are on the same footing.
I believe that on November 4 a unanimous decision was made by the House to proceed in a certain manner with regard to a matter that was before the House. When the House pronounced on the matter, the Speaker, who has to put into effect what the House has decided, looked at those points of the decision which were procedural. Those points which were procedural and could be implemented at the time were implemented at the time.
I reserved a decision on the other points. Forgive me if I do not have the numbers in front of me, but they were the numbers cited by the hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton.
I was left, as the Speaker, trying to decipher what the House had decided. The House had clearly decided to proceed. That was a decision made by the House. Therefore, on those matters which could be changed at the time, I acted on them.
On the others I had to seek advice. In order to do that, I thought the best way for us to proceed would be to ask the clerk of the House to draft motions which he would put into the hands of the House leaders. I presumed that the House leaders would have discussions with members of their own party. But at no time did I say or did I intend to say that the House leaders would decide on these changes. The House leaders would, I hope, agree, but it is the House that will be seized with making this decision when it comes to the floor of the House itself.
As far as the member's question of privilege is concerned, I would rule that he does not have a question of privilege, but he surely has a grievance. I believe that there are methods by which grievances can be addressed.
I would not be so bold as to suggest that any one member, for example the House leader for the Progressive Conservative Party, has all of the solutions, nor does the House leader for the Reform Party. But surely these are points which might be considered when this material is put into the hands of the House leaders.
I would advise and I would recommend to those members who feel aggrieved, if they do not already know all of the means that are at their disposal to rectify the situation, that we would surely be able to give advice on some of the procedures which would be available to members to rectify this situation.
However, I repeat that the decision will not be taken by the House leaders alone. The decision will be taken by the House.
If there is no further debate on this matter at this time, we will leave you to your devices at this point.