The Chair appreciates the interventions of all hon. members who have had something to say on this important issue.
It is not the first time that members in the House have criticized the government for the speed with which it proceeds with a bill. I am sure this will happen again.
Even allowing for that, I think hon. members have to recognize, as the hon. member for Pictou--Antigonish--Guysborough did in his point of order, that he was raising not a point of order. He was raising a request to the government to consider deferring the matter.
The government House leader has in effect given his answer. As I understand it he is not prepared to defer it. Now the suggestion seems to be that perhaps the Speaker is somehow able to be involved in the matter and ought to take some steps to defer the matter and prevent the House from considering the business the government has chosen to bring before the House today.
I do not think it is for the Chair to make that decision. I respectfully draw the attention of all hon. members to the words of Mr. Speaker MacNaughton on March 17, 1965, as reported on page 12479 of Hansard of that day, when he said:
The basic question is whether or not a bill in the House of Commons can be discussed, assuming that the evidence has not been completely finished in its English and French printing. I have made a search of the records since confederation, and there is no case that says that a bill in the House of Commons which is up for discussion cannot be proceeded with until the evidence has been filed. If we were to accept the suggestion of the hon. member for Lapointe...emotionally pleasing as it may be, nevertheless procedurally in my opinion it would be completely wrong, and would establish a very bad precedent.
I could quote Mr. Speaker Francis from page 4631 of Hansard dated June 13, 1984, when he said:
I really do feel uncomfortable when Hon. Members do not have the transcripts. However, I am guided by the precedent of Mr. Speaker MacNaughton. I am guided by the fact that the rules are silent as to the form of printing.
I realize hon. members are uncomfortable with the fact that certain of the transcripts of committee proceedings in relation to this bill are not available or, if they are, have only just become available, whatever the case may be. However, in spite of that, I believe it is the right of the government that sets the business of the House in compliance with the rules of the House itself to proceed with this bill without those transcripts.
As the hon. Leader of the Government in the House said, when he was first elected the minutes of the committees were not available for at least three weeks after the end of the committee meetings. I clearly remember that myself. When I first came here, 13 years ago, the committee minutes were not available the same week that the meetings had been held.
To look back at our history and our practice, I believe the ruling I have cited from Speaker MacNaughton in 1965 is entirely in accordance with that practice. However inconvenient it may be to proceed with the bill at this time, if the government's choice is to do exactly that, I do not believe it is a case where the Speaker ought to be intervening in this matter, either to delay the matter further or to make any changes in the process, which has been agreed to by the House unanimously, in extending the time for filing those amendments and in dealing with the amendments as they have been brought forward.
I therefore now proceed to orders of the day.