Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough has defeated his own argument in claiming a question of privilege when he quotes Beauchesne.
In that citation, he indicates very clearly that there is no obligation on the part of the minister to have to advise members of parliament prior to the public.
I would like to assure the Speaker and hon. members that the Minister of Justice did render the opinions on May 1. It was a Friday. The House adjourns relatively early, at 2 o'clock on Fridays. Some members may not have been present in their offices.
The opinions were given to the public and to members of parliament. Every single member of the justice committee received these opinions. The member has claimed also that the government may have used the slowest possible means of communicating these opinions to members of parliament whereas we used courier services to get them to some of the public.
We used the traditional means, the internal courier service. In talking to some of my colleagues, they have not yet seen the opinions either because some of them have just come back today.
I do not think there is an obligation on the part of government to make sure members are in their offices to receive their correspondence. That is up to members and their staff. I beg to differ, that there is no question of privilege here.
We are still at report stage and we still have ample time to put forth any modifications members of the opposition would want to put forth. As I said, the copies were sent through the normal distribution channels we have always used traditionally in this House.