Mr. Chairman, if nothing else, this has been somewhat entertaining.
I want to answer a few of the initial questions that have been asked. In the first part there were questions, but I think we eventually strayed somewhat from the questions. I will leave other members to judge as to whether or not the word somewhat is appropriate.
One the first point, whether or not this bill was rushed, I do not think that is the case. I submit to the House that there were wide consultations. As a matter of fact, the consultations were so wide that things being what they are, some of them were even leaked to the media.
Even if one claims that he or she was not consulted, it was reasonably easy to find out from one's House leader whether or not consultations had taken place because it was front page news in several media, much to my chagrin. I still have a few scars from that particular episode not that many weeks ago. I do not believe that anyone can claim to be surprised that this bill is before the House.
The second thing is that there were some comments on whether or not this was a partisan effort on the part of the government against its own backbench, and stuff like this. I have not made this a partisan issue at all. Even if provoked, I have not touched this and I will not. I will gladly engage tomorrow in a partisan argument on policy with my colleagues across the way. I am looking forward to tomorrow's question period. If hon. members across want to give it their best shot before we leave here on questions that are of interest on policy issues, I will gladly do that. However, I have not and I will not take part in the debate on this bill in terms of a partisan accusation against anybody, nor will I say who wanted what portion of the bill to be enacted as opposed to another portion, which party, which group of MPs or which individual MP wanted a particular clause as opposed to another clause, as opposed to an amendment. I have not done that and I will not, even though there has been some provocation to do so. I believe I have to be true to the admonition I gave to colleagues yesterday in the House at the second reading debate. If I want to be consistent with that, and I believe that I am, then I will not reveal that.
I am of the view that the only reason this parliament has worked at all, and I happen to believe that it has worked quite well, has been that the House leaders of all parties have been able to speak to each other on a variety of issues at any time, without notice, and to consult each other for the benefit of making this great institution work. They have been able to do that in full confidence knowing they would not have to stand in front of a microphone five minutes later and explain what they might have said in a remark to their colleagues of other parties.
I am not just saying that about the relations between myself as the government House leader and any one of the House leaders of other parties. I believe it has been true of relations between opposition parties as well, and I compliment all House leaders for that. Again on that score, I do not believe that it would be appropriate for me to say that this clause is beneficial for someone or that there was a deal made this way or that way, and so on. I will not do that.
In the initial remarks, I heard an hon. member say that I had experts available this evening. I do not apologize for that. I believe they are here to answer questions about an individual clause and how this bill will work. These same officials and others will be available tomorrow and in the weeks to come for individual members of parliament because this is, after all, a bill that affects individual members of parliament.
When it is all said and done, I am told that the House of Commons officials will distribute a circular informing members on which officials can answer questions, whether it has to do with accrual or how one buys back time time, if that happens to be the case for a particular member.
I was informed earlier this day by the very competent people who are sitting with me here in the House of Commons that officials will be available to answer the following questions: How will it affect the tax treatment? How does it do so if a person has already full contributed to their registered retirement savings plan? How does one transfer that? What is the percentage of interest that one has to pay if one is buying back time? All this will be made available for members of parliament. Those are the kinds of questions I thought we would be engaging in regarding this bill.
Something has been said here that I do not think is accurate. There is this business of the election to buy back and the limitation of a year in that regard. On this score, I will say that no one lobbied me on any side of the House for that provision to be there that way. That provision is there that way because it is the one that already exists in the act.
In other words, someone who was, hypothetically, elected in 1984, defeated in 1988, and came back in 1997 had one year to buy back or to make up his or her mind to buy back the time. If we are going to have a provision here whereby members can elect to buy back the time, why should we treat members of the House differently than we would treat someone who was defeated and came back? My argument is that they are entitled to the same thing and that is why that is the case. However, that is not a provision of this bill. That is already the case for anyone who has ever served and came back later and bought back their service. That was not invented for anyone sitting in the House now. Finally, to repeat what I said, I was not asked by anyone to put that in as one of the conditions. It is an automatic one that exists already.