—administrative issues, as the chief government whip rightly pointed out. We could also change the rules of the House. But, of course, the Speaker will never change our rules. He interprets them, he is our servant. It is up to us to change the rules and to ask the Chair to administer them for us. This is how things must work in a parliament.
As we speak, a House committee is considering changes to the rules. This was precipitated somewhat by the hundreds of amendments that were brought forward at report stage but, at the same time, the committee is considering all kinds of possible changes to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons. There is also the Board of Internal Economy, on which I and the chief government whip sit, under Your Honour's chairmanship, as do members of other political parties.
If we want to, we have the necessary tools to increase services to members if there are deficiencies in that area. The members opposite maintain there is some kind of lawyer-client relationship with the legislative counsel. Nowhere is this written. We could very well decide that it will be so in the future, not retroactively, but it would be possible for each party to have its own legislative counsel or it own legislative services, which would then be assessed by someone acting on behalf of the Chair. If that is what we decide to do in the future, fine. I am prepared to join this consensus or at least to debate the issue at the Board of Internal Economy and to change the rules if necessary.
But the Speaker of the House should not be blamed for any perceived deficiency in our services. I am not even sure a deficiency does exist. At any rate, any service we do not have here in parliament was certainly not taken away by the Speaker. That is for sure.
You know full well, Mr. Speaker, that at the start of your mandate we, those of us sitting on the Board of Internal Economy, tightened up the services available to members. We did away with some, but, once again, it was not you who took them away; it was I, he, the others on the board representing our various caucuses.
You chair the meetings, you seek consensus and, of course, you and your staff, who are highly qualified and who work faithfully for us, recently day and night, help put in place the services available to all members, as voted on by us all together. I have a hard time understanding, in fact I do not understand at all, why discrepancies at that level could be considered your responsibility.
To summarize very briefly, I think, Mr. Speaker, and it is my firm conviction that, first, your rulings are fair. I am convinced you are not involved in partisan politics. You are fair and therefore not partisan.
What some of our colleagues are after does not involve confidence or non-confidence with respect to you, Mr. Speaker. If members wish to refer this matter to a committee of the House, to the Board of Internal Economy or an ad hoc committee comprising the leaders, I would willingly sit with my colleagues.
In the meantime, I would ask, at the end of today, that one of them rise and, in a symbolic act, seek unanimous consent to withdraw this motion. In according you this unanimous consent, Mr. Speaker, we will be in a way expressing our full confidence in you, something I have always had in you and which I hope we all have both in you and in the manner in which you acquit yourself of your duties.