Mr. Speaker, some other members have said that they are sorry to have to rise on the bill. I am happy to do so because I believe I can stand here and represent the sentiment of those who have e-mailed and phoned me about the issue. Their perception of what is going on here is that it is wrong and that we ought to reject it.
I will say at the outset that I do not at all like what the Prime Minister is doing in promoting the bill, a bill which, among other things, would give him a hefty salary increase and a pension increase. That of course is true for everyone here because an increased salary does, over time, increase the pension.
I would draw to your attention Standing Order 23(1). It states:
The offer of any money or other advantage to any Member of this House, for the promoting of any matter whatsoever depending or to be transacted in Parliament, is a high crime and misdemeanour, and tends to the subversion of the Constitution.
That is in our standing orders.
I know we cannot raise it in the House as a charge because the bill is not a secret handing of money, but it is an offer of financial advantage without criticism to members who vote for it.
As far as I am concerned, the Prime Minister used the opt in clause—and it was he who put it in, not the commission—for the sole purpose of getting people to vote the way he wanted them to. That is very evident. He practically said it.
Other Liberal members have said the same thing; that anyone who votes against the legislation and then takes it is a hypocrite. In other words, the Prime Minister is setting up members who, in representing their constituents, vote against the bill. I will be voting against it. He is setting us up as special targets.
You know the terms in hockey. It is a cheap shot, it really is. If it is defensible the Prime Minister does not need to do it. If it is not defensible he should not be doing it. He is saying to anyone who votes against his wonderful bill that they will be special targets.
What annoys me is that every one of the Liberals on that side will be getting the raise. Yes, they will proudly stand and vote for it and will proudly opt in. All the while, the scrutiny of the media and of the public will be directed at those of us who voted against it instead of the guys who are putting it in.
It is a clever strategy on the part of the Liberals. They are not in power year after year, decade after decade, because they are good managers of our economy or our finances. We know that from history. They are not in power because they represent the people who pay the taxes which pay their salaries and pensions. They are in power over and over again because they know how to turn the heat on someone else who does not deserve it.
I am calling their bluff. I am voting against the bill. I do not care what the Prime Minister says. He can try to intimidate me if he wants. I do not care what the media say. I am standing up for what is right. I am voting against the bill because there are a number of offensive aspects to it.
I do not have time to talk about the hasty process. I was going to say a few things about it but my colleague has done that. Suffice to say I am annoyed that the government chose to put the bill through in a three day time line. It introduced the bill in the House on Monday. We had second reading on Tuesday, which was confined to two hours, and report stage on Wednesday, which was also confined to two hours less a delay because of another process that went on in the House. It extended the debate to two hours again today, or maybe two hours and two minutes or whatever.
During report stage I had a very important amendment. I did not even get a chance to explain it to the members opposite at report stage in committee of the whole. We had 36 to 40 clauses in the bill. In report stage we got to clause 3, then the time was up and we voted on everything. My amendment was in clause 4. We did not get to it.
I am trying to represent the members of the public who pay the bills and I did not even get to put in my amendment and tell members why they should vote for it. They would probably not have done so anyway, but as a parliamentarian I should at least have the right to put forward ideas. That is why I was elected. That is the only reason I can justify receiving any pay in this place at all.
The Prime Minister, wanting to increase the esteem in which his members are held, thinks that can be achieved by giving them more money. No, that can be achieved by allowing us to do our jobs as parliamentarians.
The bill is yet another example of where we are being inhibited from doing our jobs by government members in a hurry to jam through the legislation to give themselves a raise. It is despicable.
I want to talk about my amendment because it is a good one and it is one of the reasons I am voting against the bill. My amendment was not even really considered. In fact I think we should have a new criterion whereby every Liberal who voted against my amendment would be eligible for a pay raise if any Liberal member could stand right now and tell me what my amendment was. Not one of them even knew what it was. I am sure of it. They had little cheat sheets from their whip that said to vote against my amendment, that it was no good.
However it was good and they should have voted for it. The amendment would have eliminated that part of the bill which provides for extra pay for members of committees who serve as chairmen and vice-chairmen. Why am I opposed to that? It is really very simple. I believe that committee work is part and parcel of our jobs as parliamentarians. When I was in the education industry I did a whole lot more than just stand in front of a class. I did a lot of things on my own time for and with my students. I did not get paid every time I lifted my finger for some extra thing that I was expected to do anyway, and there were some things I was not expected to do. When I taught high school I ran a chess club with the kids. I did not get paid for it and I would not have taken it if it had been offered.
My amendment would have taken away that clause so that committee chairmen and vice-chairmen would not have received extra pay. I admit that the chairman of each committee has a little extra work. Occasionally the chairman has to stand in front of the media and do interviews, but that is what the job is. If one is elected to be the chairman of a committee, one is expected to know what is going on in that committee, just like all of us who are members of a committee. When someone sticks a microphone in our faces and asks questions about what we are discussing in committee, any one of us could answer but usually it falls to the chairman, so we could give the chairman $10 an interview. I would go for that.
What is the government proposing? The government is proposing to give a member $9,000 a year to be the chairman of a committee. The chairman has a staff of at least two people, usually closer to four, who do a lot of the work. The chairman is a figurehead and the bill would give him or her $9,000 a year out of taxpayer money. I am opposed to that.
We should also consider the fact that the government wants to give $5,000 a year to vice-chairmen. I find this really offensive. I am one of the members of the finance committee. I think it is fair to say that I attend more finance committee meetings than most of the other members.
A couple of weeks ago we were delayed in our committee for about 10 or 15 minutes, with witnesses waiting. Why? Because the chairman was not there, the first vice-chairman was not there and the second vice-chairman was not there. I told the clerk that I was ready to chair the meeting but she said it had to be one of the elected people. They are elected by some process—and I wish I could have 40 minutes more to speak—that is nothing but an appointment by the Prime Minister.
The bill would give the vice-chairmen $5,000 a year. I would venture to say that the Conservative vice-chairman of our committee has been there about 50% of the time. I think that the Liberal vice-chairman has only been at 2 meetings out of 30 all year. Give them extra pay? No way. Yet my amendment did not get any consideration.
Mr. Speaker, you do not know how I regret that my time is up but I know there are others wishing to speak and I need to sit down.