Mr. Speaker, this is a critically important matter to this parliament. Many members have described this parliament as dysfunctional. The member for Toronto--Danforth has stated in the past that parliament does not work, that it is broken and is like a car motor that is working on two cylinders.
I agree with the member for Fraser Valley that this is a great first step. I want to compliment him on the document entitled “Building Trust” which he presented after the recent federal election. It deals with trying to make parliament more functional.
The concern the House leader for the NDP and I have is that it is fine to put all of this on paper but is it actually going to change anything.
The events of September 11 were very important and critical to every Canadian. Announcements were made by the Prime Minister at events outside the House. The Prime Minister does not brief parliamentarians.
I would like the member to comment on the things in this report. Are they going to change things? Are we going to see a drastic change in the attitude from cabinet to make parliament more functional? I have concerns. It is great to put it on paper, but to actually change things or make that significant a difference, we will need to see a great willingness on the part of members on the other side to change their attitude.