Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to rise on behalf of the New Democratic Party to support Bill S-34, a basic act to make the procedures of royal assent a little easier here in the House of Commons.
I also wish to state that our House leader, the member for Winnipeg--Transcona, was an integral part of the committee that brought these changes forward. We believe that his leadership on this file has assisted in many ways in getting this to the forefront of where we are today.
The question of reforming the royal assent process in the Canadian parliament has risen on a number of occasions in recent years, notably in the report of the McGrath committee of 1985. Many significant reforms to the House came out of this report. In fact our House leader, again the member for Winnipeg--Transcona, was a member of the committee which introduced, among other things, the ability to have some private members' businesses votable, maybe not as many as I personally would like but it was a start.
This is what happens when we have a very effective parliamentarian in the House of Commons from the New Democratic Party to bring these great issues forward to all levels of government and all other parties.
Bill S-34 will continue to remind us how laws are passed in Canada, how the House, the Senate and the Governor General each play a unique role in bringing legislation forward, and of the ability for us as members of parliament to bring forward issues or amendments on various pieces of legislation and watch that legislation flow through the process in a parliamentary reform.
I also want to mention the fact that although this is a very important aspect of changes to our House of Commons in terms of forming more of a simple procedure in this regard, it maintains the traditions that we hold so strongly in our parliamentary tradition. It is worth noting that the majority of members of parliament here would support this initiative. We in the New Democratic Party support this and hope to see quick passage of the bill as soon as possible.