Mr. Speaker, I was not aware that when we voted on Bill C-38 that there was yet another problematic feature.
There is something in Bill S-12 that adds to that problem. There is a prohibition on incorporating by reference regulation materials from a minister who is making the regulations, or by any department or agency that he oversees. There is absolutely no prohibition on one minister turning to materials or documents from elsewhere in the government, another department or agency he or she has nothing to do with, and incorporating that by reference, even if those materials have not gone through the regulation process. That is quite a back door and it appears in this statute.
To add to what the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands has said, we really have to begin to understand how we are becoming hollowed out as a democracy when the executive is given that kind of authority.