Mr. Speaker, thank you for the comments in terms of the smart comments on behalf of the member for Calgary West. I would never indeed question the good judgment of the Chair. We all value your position, Mr. Speaker, and the contributions that you have made to the House.
I must however talk to the whole idea of this bill not having been considered by five official parties as represented in the House. In its place of origination since the election on June 2, it has only had the representation of two parties, and those not being in this Chamber.
I think that really speaks to whether or not this bill is actually an accountable one, whether or not it circumvents government accountability because indeed, there are five parties represented in the House. If the other three have not had a voice in this piece of legislation and if it did not originate here when it does involve something that has to do with money, then it is a very difficult matter indeed. It strains the democratic accountability of both houses and of Parliament generally.
We think this bill needs to be accountable to the constituents of five respective parties as opposed to just two parties, one of which only represents 7% of the population as it stands here in the House of Commons today.
We do not want Bill S-4 to be reflective of an archaic, unelected, unaccountable and unrepresentative body. We believe that this is a slow erosion of the power of the House of Commons.
I would like to refer to a member who sits in the other Chamber, somebody I talked to just this afternoon. Last year the Senate had 67 sittings of which many of the people in that place only sat for roughly 50% of the time. I would like to go through the math of this for a second. I think it is pertinent. At 67 sittings a year with a salary in excess of $64,000 a year that would work out—