Mr. Speaker, what I find very disturbing in the comments by the member, with whom I worked and for whom I have a lot of respect, is that he did not address the issue.
I know he is intelligent enough to know there is a problem, but he chose not to address it, and I find this disturbing. At issue is the changing nature of the relationship between the members and the legislative counsel. This is the issue. This is a change we were not advised of.
This change may well have been made in good faith, but we have every right to consider it as a breach of our privileges as MPs. We have the right to expect, when dealing with a legislative counsel regarding a private member's bill, or when working on amendments in a committee, that he will be the only one privy to the amendment until it is published in the order paper.