Mr. Speaker, I realize the members across do not like the fact that I am trying to give relevance to a problem in committees, but you have to be a bit more patient with the issue. I cannot just stand here and talk about sport in Canada, everybody's business, leadership, partnership and accountability, without telling you what our frustration is.
This report hits the House of Commons floor and it collects dust until the government leaves office. Nothing gets done. All of those people who attended as witnesses from across the country on sport in Canada, everybody's business, think that something is going to get done and it is not. It is just a report. These folks bury it.
Our concern is for this report, the report on televised committees and the report on leaks in the House of Commons. All of those are serious issues.
The government seems to think that it is A-OK to keep our members busy in committees and, when all of their productive work is done, it can just shove it off, throw it in the garbage and say “Let us carry on with something else”. It will write a little press release if it is in its favour and that is it. It is not going to work that way any more.
The Reform Party whip, my colleague from Fraser Valley, and I are already looking at possibilities as to what we can do with committees to make them relevant.
Had the government taken the initiative from one committee, and one committee only, where there was unanimous consent on a report and done something with it, we might not be here today. We are getting darned sick and tired of busy work going on in the House of Commons when Canadian people think there is something going on. We are getting darned sick and tired of it going nowhere.
We are equally sick and tired of petitions coming into the House of Commons with 100 to 300,000 names on them and going nowhere.
This might be a majority government that can pass legislation through the House of Commons because it has more members who stand to vote, but we want more than that. We want input. We want input from grassroots Canadians to go somewhere and to be meaningful, not to be buried in committees.
Why can members across the way not get it through their thick skulls that there is more to democracy in Canada than the people who sit across the way? Only 38% of the population wants them in office and they think they can run the whole darned thing without asking anybody for any input.
I can only say this, Mr. Speaker. You can count on this issue coming up again. We are not going to let it go until we can get some changes made across the way. Either this place gets more in tune with democracy or there are going to be a lot of debates in the House on the issue.
Which is it going to be? Is it going to be the cabinet running everything, while backbenchers do as they are told? Is it going to be the committees, which bring in witnesses from right across the country and develop reports, which deal with these things, or is the government going to shove them in the garbage like it usually does? Which way is it going to be?