Mr. Speaker, I will make two brief points.
First, the hon. Leader of the Government in the House of Commons suggested, I think erroneously, that the amendment to the concurrence motion in question was out of order because the Standing Orders were amended to require that the government give its response to a committee report before concurrence could be moved. In fact, the government did give its response to this report and the response was in the form of the budget of the hon. Minister of Finance. Perhaps the hon. House leader overlooked the budget, which is at the heart of the question we are dealing with now.
He is seeking to invoke the rules to restrict the moving of a concurrence motion until there is a government response, but the minister's own arguments are not consistent with the rules that he himself sought to amend and the government amended.
I would further point out a precedent that I think will be relevant to your decision. On June 20, 1994, and on November 7, 1996, the Speaker ruled that:
While it is the tradition of this House that committees are masters of their own proceedings, they cannot establish procedures which go beyond the powers conferred upon them by the House.
Committees receive their powers from the House. The House can alter them any way it sees fit. The minister argued that committees cannot be told what to do. It is the other way around. The tail does not wag the dog. The dog wags the tail.