Mr. Speaker, that is the sort of vitriolic, nonsensical, ethyl alcohol fuel type of rhetoric we have become accustomed to.
The member can speak about the right hon. member's personal appearance, but he has ample jowls himself that we have just seen shaking and swinging in the breeze over there as he tried to attack the integrity of a former prime minister. Canadians can judge for themselves who has credibility and who does not.
Turning back to the issue at hand, the timing of the legislation is such that Canadians are left to wonder why we would do this in the dying days of parliament. Why are we embarking on aid to MPs and not aid to farmers or individuals in the health care or justice systems? Why are we doing this now?
That is what is so distasteful and reprehensible to Canadians. This is hush money for the backbench and blood money for the opposition. This is about telling members of the House of Commons that if they do not jump in line and play ball with the Prime Minister they will pay a price. They will take a personal penalty. It will affect their financial well-being.
Putting that clause in the bill clearly drives a wedge. It is there to single out individuals and put them into the books of Canadians who are looking for someone to champion a cause and yet make them pay a penalty for standing and saying that they did not ask for this and that they do not see it as a priority or as the direction in which the House should be going.
There are very good recommendations in the report. The Lumley report clearly outlines that this is not an issue we should need to deal with in future parliaments. It says that we should tie it into the Judges Act. It talks about compensation being reasonable and tied into another sector. It talks about the necessity of collapsing the tax free allowance that has in essence tried to hide the salaries of members of parliament.
There are certainly elements of the report that we can embrace but the bill goes beyond the pith and substance of the Lumley report. The attempt to somehow deal with it in this parliament is inappropriate. The Progressive Conservative Party is trying to be consistent by suggesting that it would be much more appropriate to vote on a bill that would take effect after the next election. It should also be a bill that we could say with pride would enhance parliament and help future parliamentarians rather than ourselves. Those are the horns of the dilemma on which members of parliament find themselves.
If we want to change the pay schedule let us do it for a future parliament and let us do it in a way that is more palatable not only to members of parliament but, more important, to our constituents.
The amendment put forward is one we should ponder and take time to support. We should recognize the provocative and laughingly arrogant insertion of a clause that says that if one has the audacity to stand and oppose the government and the Prime Minister's own bill one will pay a price. That is what is taking place. It is an attempt to bully not only backbench members of the government but, more important, opposition members who might take umbrage with the suggestion that we should take the money, shut our mouths, go away and be happy about it.
I have great difficulty with that. Members routinely come into the Chamber and, on behalf of their constituents and for all sorts of reasons, decide not to support government legislation and do not pay a personal price for it. This is taking it to a whole new level. This type of tactic is offensive to the democratic principles of parliament. It is intended to distract from the real issue. Canadians know that the real issue is that we are getting money by increasing our salaries. The Prime Minister is in a different category. After his pay raise his salary will be double that of other members of parliament.
We are in an incredibly difficult and tight situation. We are between the proverbial rock and the hard place. We either be quiet, bend down, kiss the Prime Minister's ring, take the money and sign off, or we just go away.
I will take this moment to move a subamendment to the amendment before the House. I move:
That the amendment be amended by inserting after the words “the spirit of pay equity by establishing a two tier” the words “and retroactive”.
Receiving the money is one thing but to actually take money for work already done increases the audacity and the incredible affront to people's sensibility. I therefore move the subamendment subject to it being ruled in order by the Chair.