Mr. Speaker, first I would like to say that I share the concern expressed by the House leader of the Reform Party and for that matter by the government House leader about the pattern of leaked committee reports.
I will have more to say on a subsequent point of order about question period, but one just feels the whole place here is teetering on the brink of chaos. People each in their own way are showing no respect for a variety of customs that have been established in this place to keep us from descending into chaos. One of those things has been the provision that committee reports are private and confidential until such time as they are tabled in this House.
This is part of a larger pattern of disregard for the House. It is not surprising to me, although I say this in no way to excuse it, but over time members would come to see the media as the place to make announcements when a pattern has developed over the years where the government itself does it. The House itself is used less and less by ministers, by the Prime Minister and by the government to make announcements. It is not just committee reports that we read about in the paper; it is government policy announcements and other kinds of major announcements that we read about in the paper. It is a pattern that is destroying this place.
Mr. Speaker, I do not know what you can do about it because in the end it is something we all have to do something about. It does not just have to do with committees. It has to do with a pattern of government disregard for the House which has caught on and which has become endemic and is reaching its way into every aspect of our undertakings here.
I would urge members in whatever their capacity, whether they are government or opposition, that wherever they have an opportunity, to uphold the view that here is where we hear about things first. Here is where members of parliament get elected so they can hear about things first, instead of reading about it in the newspaper whether it is a committee report or an announcement by a minister. Then we can get back to being a parliament for a change.