Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciated my colleague's speech on the bill. I thought it was very well thought out. I was particularly interested in his opening comments in which he talked about the power of the executive, the power of the cabinet to make decisions that troubles even the government's own backbenchers, frankly, as we have read in the media in recent days and weeks. That is troubling, especially when we reflect on the things that have happened in the media in the last couple of weeks. Accountability really is at the core of what we are trying to establish, and the bill again tries to undermine some of that accountability.
Conservative Senator Linda Frum said: “Incorporation by reference is a widely used drafting technique currently, but this bill would legitimize it...”. This is really important. She is saying they are doing it already on the government side, but what they are trying to do now is cover themselves after the fact by bringing in legislation that would validate what they have been doing 170 times already.
I am not sure we want to provide that kind of cover retroactively. I wonder if my colleague could comment on whether he thinks it is appropriate to use a Senate bill to cover the government's butt—it is not Hamilton language, but it is probably as parliamentary as I can get here—whether that is an appropriate use of this kind of legislation to cover something that the executive has been doing without, frankly, the requisite authority.