Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with my colleague from New Brunswick. In my view, as I have said, we have a Standing Committee on Official Languages. It exists. Unfortunately, it does not work. It exists under a provision of the standing orders of this House and it is composed of parliamentarians of all parties represented in this House. It is not working because the Conservative members of the committee decided, last week and two weeks ago, that they did not want to put forward the name of a new chair. We are therefore at an impasse which forces the three opposition parties to continue working in an unofficial way. We have no other choice.
This being said, the committee exists. We are hoping that the Conservatives will finally wake up and understand that they are stalemating debate in this Chamber and that they have acted in an undemocratic and unparliamentary way.
This bill should be referred to the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I would not dream of putting words into the mouth of government members sitting across from me, but if they send this bill to the Standing Committee on Transport, practically no one on that committee will be familiar with the Official Languages Act. It is a complex act, like all acts. By proceeding this way, there will be no committee members who could ask specific questions and obtain specific answers.
Obviously, it is more dangerous to refer the bill to a committee where members understand the act. That is precisely where the government does not want to refer this bill.