Yes persons, as one of the Liberals said. Isn't that just the ultimate in political correctness.
These yes persons, or the Chrétien lookalikes as I mentioned earlier, will each bleat their approval of any of the regulations without really considering seriously whether they are appropriate or legal.
At least by putting them through the process, eventually they will reach the joint Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations and could even be brought to our attention earlier.
If the regulations go before the justice committee, then at least members of the opposition or a member of the public, a witness who sees those regulations coming forward and has concerns about them, can bring them to the attention of the joint Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations. We can give our input.
One of the things absolutely essential with regulations is to get a regulatory impact statement. Then there is an obligation on the department producing the regulations to also produce a regulatory impact statement explaining what impact is expected for the regulation to have on the public or on those affected by the regulation and it also gives the cost and whether alternatives have been pursued.
There could be other ways of achieving the same result. Those regulatory impact statements are an important part of the process.
I endorse the motion put forward by the Bloc. I doubt very much that the government will find in its heart to support this very good suggestion at the time of the vote but we certainly will.