Mr. Speaker, that was a good question from my colleague. That is what we are dealing with today.
Some people might ask what televised committees has to do with all of this. Televised committees is just a typical example, such as the report on sport in Canada.
The power of the House rests with a few people on the front benches. The backbenchers may think they have input, but we know full well that is not the case. The backbenchers go to committees and talk a great storm. They talk a great deal about what things have to change. However, they know as well as we know that once their discussions formulate into a report it comes into the House of Commons, the minister looks at it and says “I do not like this”, and it goes in the garbage and is gone.
Some of these committees work for five and six months on an issue, like the committee on drunk driving. What is the government going to do at the end of it? We have a suspicion that it is going to table these reports and leave them there to die, like the report on sport. That is what will happen to this report, like the one on televised committees.
Speaking about televised committees, we want that report dealt with. If it is a vote in the House and the government says no, so be it, but we should not leave it in the dust pile. That is what is wrong here.
In answer to my colleague's question, the problem is that this is all about democracy. This is all about Canadians who come into the House thinking they are going to have great input and change the laws of our lands through reports. They go home thinking that since they were at a committee things are surely going to change.
We had Lee Ellen Carroll and Craig Oliver at a televised committee. They thought something was going to change but it did not. The only thing that happened was that the government House leader came into a meeting that I was at and said that he would make me a deal. I asked him what kind of deal he wanted to make. He said he knew that the report on televised committees had a whole lot of recommendations but that he did not like them. What he wanted to do was make me an offer to set up another room.
When he did that we asked him why would he do it. The committee met for six weeks and the first recommendation was not to do that. It states:
To permanently equip another room for broadcasting committees, however, is not feasible or desirable at this time—
We got that offer for several reasons. I doubt the government House leader ever read the report. He did not attend any committee meetings. He was probably told by a minister to have somebody look at the report, even though he did not like it, and then threw it in the garbage. That is where it sits today.
I can tell the House that there will be a lot of discussions on this until we get some action on it. There will lots of discussions on all other reports. There will be lots of votes in the House of Commons on these issues until we get some satisfaction. That is what is going to happen.
Either we get some satisfaction or the government will have to live with a lot of discussion on the issue. What is it going to be? Are we going to listen to Canadians or are we going to listen to the cabinet over there? Instead of sitting on the backbench, we should be speaking up for Canadians.