Mr. Speaker, I am sure all hon. members in the House in the last couple of days before the year ends believe the House should run more efficiently and we should look through the lens of issues rather than the lens of political stripes.
I bring to the attention of the House an incident that occurred at the scrutiny of regulations committee. This is a very unique and important joint committee of the House of Commons and the Senate. On Friday of last week I tabled a report and then I asked for unanimous consent to move concurrence in the report. The report was not concurred in because I could not get unanimous consent.
Today the committee meeting could not be held simply because we could not proceed with a reduced quorum. As a result the budget could not be approved and during this holiday season the salaries of legal counsel who are employees of the committee could not be approved.
When we ask for unanimous consent it should not create a situation where unanimous consent is refused because it is one against the other. Some members of the House feel they have different motives or different objectives. I seek some advice from the Chair on how to resolve the issue.