Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. I was wondering about that myself yesterday when I heard the legislation come forward.
I refer to my own private member's bill which is before the House now and which deals with parental accountability under the Young Offenders Act. The minister saw fit to include my ideas, word for word, into the new legislation. For that I am grateful because I firmly believe that if there is a good idea that comes from this place, then it deserves to be implemented, regardless of where it comes from.
I certainly have questions about the issue that the hon. member raised. The member for Calgary Centre has Bill C-284 before the committee right now. It is a lot further along in the system than that which was proposed by the solicitor general. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why the government would not just go ahead and deal with the bill of the hon. member for Calgary Centre and amend it if requires amending.
It is quite possible that the solicitor general's image needs a bit of a boost right now. Maybe that is why the government is doing it. That could be my only answer.