Mr. Chairman, first I want to congratulate the hon. House leader of the New Democratic Party for the excellent speech he gave last night in the House. It was certainly the hon. member at his best. He is a fine orator, and we all know it. I am sure that he meant very much that which he said.
Again I am trying to respect the way in which I have done this work, not only over the last number of months but over the last number of years, and I am afraid I will have to say to my colleague that I will not say publicly which clause of the bill was requested by whom. I said I would not do that yesterday and I will not do it now.
In terms of the fast tracking, we are at the end of the session. There are bills which we deal with more rapidly than otherwise would be the case by consent among the House leaders. This is certainly one of them. There is no doubt about that.
Perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on what all of this does. This does not create a new law. This does not even create a new benefit. This does not add benefits. It only does two things. One, it corrects an historical wrong in terms of the severance component. In other words, some people have a particular benefit while others do not. However, nowhere does it raise the benefits.
Secondly, it permits people who are eligible otherwise to be part of a group in terms of pension contributions to be part of the group that they should have been part of from the very beginning. It actually makes it such that everyone starts contributing from the day the bill receives royal assent. I for one believe that if there is a group package, whether it is group life insurance or whatever, everyone should pay the premiums.
I have said that all along. I have said that when some members of parliament were disagreeing with me. Today, of course, I will say it when people are agreeing with me. The proposition is the same. If it was the right thing to do then, I have to say that it is the right thing to do now.
I am being asked about how people should have voted on this. I am not going to reflect upon a vote of the House that has already been held. Perhaps, in a little while, when we have the third reading of the bill, we could show some solidarity, if that is the appropriate word.
Although not everyone wants the bill, since nothing is unanimous in this world, at the very least we could show that there is a form of consensus that we all know exists by having this bill carried on third reading without a recorded division. Perhaps that would be the correct thing to do. It would help to re-establish the balance that the hon. member is seeking.
Obviously we cannot undo anything that has been done before, but that might be a good way to restore that balance.