Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order on a matter flowing from your ruling.
Mr. Speaker, as you know the Standing Orders provide for the House and its members to have a debate on the Standing Orders themselves in the first 60 sitting days of a first session of Parliament.
That is an extremely important event. As you referred in your ruling, Standing Order 108 prescribes the mandates. The only opportunity that ordinary members get to in fact deal with the evolving nature of mandates of committees is in addressing that.
It is unfortunate that in the last two Parliaments now those proceedings to have a debate on the Standing Orders have been eliminated because there was a negotiation between House leaders to trade it away for other concessions, and in the current Parliament because the House prorogued in the first session before 60 days lapsed. The Standing Orders are clear. The debate must take place in the first session of a Parliament.
I think this matter may even be a matter of privilege for hon. members who feel it is important that we have some reasonable opportunity to have input into amending the Standing Orders, which guide our actions and directions not only in the chamber but also in our committees and other duties as parliamentarians.
I wanted to raise that, Mr. Speaker, because I agree with you very strongly that the mandates of committees are there, but the envelopes have been pushed and clarifications are necessary. The only way that ordinary members of Parliament can get an opportunity to express their concerns and their views on this matter is to have the debate prescribed in the Standing Orders, which has been denied to hon. members in the last two Parliaments.