Mr. Speaker, I will repeat what the minister just said.
He wants to send the bill to committee so that members can propose amendments. However, after second reading, members are more limited in the amendments they can propose.
The question that I would like to ask the minister deals with procedure. If what the minister just said is true, why did the government not choose to send the bill to committee before second reading?
A period of five extra hours is allotted for debate, as with the motion moved today. No vote is necessary; the bill is automatically sent to committee. The committee would therefore have all the latitude it needs, and the minister seems to want to give the committee that latitude.
In addition, we could have avoided this 44th time allocation motion, which imposes a time limit and a vote and undermines Parliament. We are going to waste another hour—a half-hour of debate and a half-hour to call in the members for the vote.
If the Conservatives were really serious, why did they not choose to send the bill to committee before second reading in order to make the committee's job easier?