Mr. Speaker, I too will make a comment about the point of order raised by the House leader for the Bloc Quebecois because I share his concern about your decision yesterday. It is a regrettable decision and it could possibly have a lot of negative consequences if you do not find a way to review it and come to some other understanding of how these things should be settled.
It is my view as NDP House leader that there was an agreement as to how votable days would be allotted or, for that matter, how opposition days would be allotted and how votable days within the allotted opposition days would be allotted to the various parties.
I offer as evidence not just my memory of the fact that there was an agreement but the fact that the NDP which has used up both its opposition days had only one votable day out of the two opposition days. We had a non-votable opposition day and then we had a votable opposition day on which we are having the vote tonight. If we had thought in any way that there was an agreement which would have permitted us to have two votable opposition days we would have sought to have both our opposition days votable.
On the face of it, it is clear at least from our point of view that there was an agreement. However I think there was an agreement and what has happened is a form of parliamentary mischief, to put it kindly, on the part of the PC/DR caucus, Mr. Speaker, and I do not think you should fall for it. My problem is that in making the ruling you did yesterday you have left yourself open to the accusation that you have been part of the parliamentary mischief on the part of the caucus I refer to.
Mr. Speaker, the evidence for this is in the Hansard for yesterday although you were quick to deny you had any intention of ruling on the larger matter. The fact of the matter is that the attempt by members of the PC/DR caucus to have their motion votable was in their minds connected to the larger question of their status and rights in the House of Commons. In commenting on your point of order The Progressive Conservative House leader said:
This issue ties into another larger issue you are aware of and on which you have also ruled. That is the fact that the coalition now has 19 members, members of the Democratic Representative caucus and members of the Conservative caucus. It was different when the original arrangement was--
You cut him off there, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps the House leader of the Conservatives was inadvertently referring to the agreement that existed with respect to votable opposition days when he was talking about the original agreement.
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative House leader sent you a letter in March, 2001 disclaiming any part of any agreement having to do with votable days, but nevertheless I see evidence here of the fact that there was general knowledge of such an agreement. Last year we had no such dispute on the floor of the House of Commons about votable days and opposition days.
If this was a matter to be raised independently of the new situation the House leader of the Conservatives finds himself in, why was it not raised last year? It was not and that is because there was an agreement. There was a general understanding and agreement that the NDP caucus was clearly operating out of, otherwise we would not have willingly foregone the opportunity to have an extra votable opposition day.
Mr. Speaker, I urge you to find a way to get yourself, or for that matter the House, out of the hole being dug here with respect to the value and reliability of agreements that are entered into by the House leaders.
If we were to accept the logic of the ruling yesterday, which is to say that whenever someone wants to break an agreement, there has to be agreement otherwise the person who breaks the agreement gets their way, is a perverse sort of procedural logic that I think would wreak havoc both with respect to this decision and with respect to the others.
As the House leader of the Bloc pointed out, one would hardly expect the Conservative House leader to agree that he was wrong in putting forward a votable motion. Why would you give the veto, Mr. Speaker, to the people who were the mischief makers in the first place, to the people who were trying to transcend or go beyond or break, however one wants to put it, the agreement that was in place? It just does not make any sense and it sets a very bad precedent.
It may be that you were not fully aware of the facts with respect to the agreement or with respect to the fact that all parties in the House agreed, with the exception of the Conservatives, and I would say even they, I think, at some point knew there was an agreement but may have had a different view of how much they liked that agreement. Nevertheless there was an agreement. If you were not aware of the facts, if you were not aware of that general agreement about there being an agreement, this would be a forgivable thing and you could move on and say that now that you were fully aware of the facts you could make a different decision. If you do not, I think you will certainly have established a very bizarre sort of precedent procedurally, which is whoever breaks an agreement has to agree. It is so bizarre that I am not even sure how to phrase it.
The fact is, Mr. Speaker, you have given a veto to people who are trying to break agreements and I do not think that is a good idea at any time.