Mr. Speaker, I want to respectfully disagree with the submission made by the hon. House leader for the opposition.
In his submission the hon. member claims that this bill is a money bill and therefore it is constitutionally incorrect for the bill to have been presented to the Senate before the House of Commons. That is the essence of his statement today.
Mr. Speaker, you will know of course that the hon. member further stated that in his view no bill shall be presented to the Senate before the House. Of course the Constitution of our country is such that bills generally, with the exception of money bills—and I will get to that in a minute—can be presented to either House of Parliament.
Last fall hon. members across the way made the argument that government bills should not be presented to the Senate at all. Your honour adjudicated on that matter and stated that that submission by members across the way was wrong, that in fact both Houses did have the constitutional authority for bills generally. On that point I would submit that the hon. member lost the battle previously.
On the second issue as to whether or not this bill is a money bill, the bill is not a money bill. The hon. member himself admitted in his submission that the bill did not have a royal recommendation. He says that a similar bill in a previous Parliament did. It may be that a bill somewhat similar or even identical did have a royal recommendation. That is not the issue. The issue is whether a royal recommendation was required. A royal recommendation not having been required, there was no royal recommendation in the Senate nor is there one with the bill now in this House.
If there is no royal recommendation necessary for the bill, it is quite constitutional for the bill to be presented first before either house of Parliament and to the other house subsequently. This is exactly the process that has occurred with regard to this bill.
Finally, going back to the other point raised by the hon. member across the way, he submitted as he also did last year at one point, that bills should not originate in the Senate at all.
I want to remind the Speaker and the House that I put on the record last fall with Mr. Speaker that a bill in the last Parliament first introduced by the Senate and then subsequently dealt with by the House required a stand up division vote on which he and other members of his party voted favourably.