Mr. Speaker, this is the first opportunity I have had to speak to the bill in committee of the whole. I take the opportunity to comment on what is no doubt a very symbolic amendment by the hon. member, my vis-à-vis in the Conservative Party, the House leader of the Conservative Party.
I am sure the amendment he is offering to the committee of the whole is well intentioned, but I profoundly disagree with it for a number of reasons.
First, it is not at all part of the recommendations of the Lumley report. The Lumley commission and the commissions we have established following every election have never operated that way. We have had recommendations in the past about dealing with the state of parliament as it exists. Comparisons made in the Lumley report with the private sector, the public sector, the inflation rate and everything else, and I am looking at table 3.1 on page 12 of the report, refer to conditions as they are now. The scales are adjusted to the level we have at present and no other level. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to consider an amendment of this kind.
The hon. member proposed that we not vote an amendment to the compensation package that applies now. He said it would somehow not be appropriate. I believe the words conflict of interest were used. He said such an offering would be somehow better if it applied to a future parliament.
I profoundly disagree. I have always stood up for the rights and privileges of members of the House. I did so when it was somewhat more popular than it is now. I also did so when it was far less popular. I remember some pension issues several years ago when the fashionable thing was to say how much of a pay cut we should all take. I refused to participate in anything of that nature.
I have taken the position that if I am not worth the salary, my constituents will surely replace me with someone who is. That is why I disagree with the proposition. Debasing the currency is in no way helpful for any of us in the House or indeed for the high office we all hold.
The hon. member is not proposing to reduce the salary, so I will not overstate what he said. However on the business of applying it to a future parliament, that would make someone else accountable four years from now for the decision we make today. That is not correct either.
Members are free to agree or disagree with that proposition but it is one I believe in very firmly. I will make my decisions today. I will stand out there in front of the microphones or whomever and defend the decisions I have made. I will defend them before my constituents this weekend and so on because they are the decisions I made. I will not say that I made the decisions now and whoever is here four years from now can judge them. That would not be right. As a matter of principle it is wrong. I recognize that other people might feel differently about it but I do not. That is the right way of doing it.
Finally, if we create that kind of condition what will occur four years from now? There will be a huge debate as to whether the previously voted increase should be knocked down by whoever may start a form of surenchère about the issue again.
That is no way to legislate. We do not legislate anything else that way and we should not legislate this matter that way. We should legislate it in a proper and responsible way. We are doing what the Lumley commission asked us to do. We are offering, by way of this clause, to put it in place.
The government therefore cannot support the amendment put forward by the hon. House leader of the Conservative Party. As I said, I am sure it is well-intentioned and properly put and so on. However I fundamentally disagree that it should be done and I cannot support the amendment for all the reasons I have just enunciated.