Once again the Leader of the Opposition has raised a point. I note on both sides the dearth of citations of Canadian practice in this regard. There is nothing in the authorities or in the Standing Orders of the House, and any of the Canadian authorities that I have been able to find in the few minutes that I have been looking at this, that indicates that there was any requirement, that before debating a motion of this kind, that the document be tabled.
Certainly, were the House adopting legislation to implement a treaty, there might be an argument that the treaty itself would have to be before the House or at least on the Table of the House. Normally legislation refers to the treaty and the committee considering that legislation would naturally have a look at the treaty. But in this case the motion before the House is not to implement anything. It calls upon the government to ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
In other words, it does not itself ratify the protocol. It calls upon the government to do it, which of course is why we are having this argument. I am sure we will hear later in the debate as to how the government will get authority to do this, but the position of the government has been that it has the right to do it. It is seeking parliamentary approval and this is a motion, by the House, to call upon the government to ratify.
Accordingly, I do not know why the British practice would apply since we are not by this motion implementing this accord. The government could, even after the House called upon it to ratify, refuse to do so and I am not sure what the House could do about it having made the call. The call would be made and the government could do what it likes in any event under the Constitution and under the circumstances.
While I have some sympathy with the argument advanced by the hon. Leader of the Opposition, in the circumstances I do not think that Canadian practice supports his argument that such treaties must be deposited in the House for 21 days before the House can debate a motion calling on the government to ratify the treaty. Accordingly, I do not find the point of order well taken and propose to put the motion to the House.