Mr. Speaker, I want to take a minute to set out the government's position with respect to Motion No. 2 and to point out that Standing Orders 32(5) of the House of Commons already provides for the referral of any tabled report to the appropriate standing committee.
The second part of my submission would be that Standing Order 108(2) allows the justice committee or any other committee of its own volition to make a study at any time of a matter within the jurisdiction of the departments it oversees. As a result it seems to me that this is a redundant section. I do not know if it is appropriate to override House standing orders by statute.
Standing Order 32(5) states that reports laid before the House in accordance with an act of Parliament, which is what this would be, shall thereon be deemed to have been permanently referred to the appropriate standing committee. The point is that it is already referred to us. It does not need to be referred by statute because the standing orders already do that.
The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights is free to determine whether public hearings are in the public interest. I want to point out too that at the time of tabling, it is always open to the House to make a motion requiring the committee to report back. That has been done from time to time.
The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights has a busy schedule but there is no reason why such a report could not be studied by it and should not be studied by it, if it is the will of the committee.
I thank the member for her submission. It is an interesting one. It is helpful to have these debates, but I would suggest that Motion No. 2 is unnecessary in this legislation.