Mr. Speaker, given the catcalling from the other side, I am surprised there were no questions, but I will pose a question.
The member has found the bill riveting reading. Many of the contents of the bill, although the government has labelled them as housekeeping items, have certain consequences and certain resulting impacts.
The member alluded in his comments to the motivation of the bill perhaps being, in part at least, the government's concerns as a result of the APEC inquiry which cost the Canadian taxpayers in excess of $10 million. That resulted in a commissioner's resignation and tremendous delays. I think that aroused a lot of concerns among Canadians that perhaps there was a little too much political influence being exercised in terms of the RCMP's conduct, not specific to that event solely but in other respects as well. All of us recognize the vital importance of an independent police force and the RCMP of course with its worldwide reputation is one we are all proud of as Canadians.
Perhaps the member would like to put some comments on the record as far as his concerns or ideas around the RCMP. It might be of benefit to Canadians if we did a better job of separating the potential, at least, for political influence intermingling with the decisions our police forces should be making solely on the basis of facts and the investigative work they do.