Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member about this backlog of legislation causing this debate today. It is the tip of the iceberg and a symptom of a much larger problem. The member is my colleague on the justice committee. I want to know if he sees it the same way that I do.
It seems to me that another problem underlying this is the poor drafting of legislation that has come forward and also legislation for which there has not been consultation. At meeting after meeting of the justice committee and other committees I have been to, witnesses have come forward from outside Parliament, non-partisan witnesses, saying that they have never been consulted on the bills dealing with their interests and the areas on which they are experts.
We have ended up with bills that do the exact opposite of the objectives of the government and of all the members of Parliament. For instance, in regard to the objective of reducing crime, certain bills actually would have increased crime. We heard an example from the Minister of Indian Affairs. For a bill that was only nine words in an operative clause, it has taken 20 days, a significant amount of that time used by Conservatives, to ask witnesses questions. We found that almost all the witnesses had the same seven or eight objections. There were things that could have been fixed had consultation occurred.
Does the member agree with me that some of this unnecessary backlog causing this motion is due to a very poor system of bringing up legislation? It seems to have changed from the regular system in government. It is a bit of an esoteric point.