Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to listen to my colleague who spoke about the issues surrounding what happens in committees. Having been one of three people from the Reform Party who sat on the procedure and House affairs committee which dealt with televised committees, I can only say that the frustration is growing more and more every day.
The problem is, when members from all parties in a committee agree on a concept, it comes into the House and it dies. I note that the government whip was there and he agreed to it. I presume that these folks are just as knowledgeable as we are as far as what has to take place. Now the question in the House and in committees as well is: Should we even be here? If we develop a report, put all of our ideas together and come to a unanimous consensus, only to have it die because someone in cabinet kills it, should we even bother?
I note that the recommendations coming from the report on televised committees were very good. This was to be a pilot project for the coverage of committees, with 24 hours' notice. There was a sunset clause that it would end this June. There were constraint criteria, such as those televising the committees would obey the rules. It would be gavel to gavel coverage of the whole committee meeting. It would be objective coverage.
The only recommendation which was made that put some negative light on it was that the committee did not want to renovate one particular room because of the cost and the fact that the House of Commons will soon be under renovation.
What happens? The government House leader says “I do not like this report. What we will do is renovate a room”. That was the very recommendation to which the committee said no. Not having been at any of the meetings, I suppose he could have read the report, but I doubt that he did.
Is this just an issue of televised committees, or is there something bigger at stake? I will leave it at that because that is the important question.