Mr. Speaker, my colleagues in the NDP are talking about this bozo eruption. Mr. Speaker, that is really not how we should be talking about this very weighty component of legislation that could potentially come before the House.
It is also important to note that in the last year, as someone on this side of this place, I know we are all subject to very transparent and rigorous reporting functions. I have been glad to see that we have had some all-party dialogue on how MPs can report their expenses and how we can have more accountability and transparency in that area. Certainly that is something that the Senate side should be following as well, and over the last year we have seen the adoption of some new rules in the Senate for reporting expenses. That is a step in the right direction.
Again, just to recap, to simply eliminate this particular item out of the estimates and say we are not going to let the Senate operate is perhaps not the best approach. I know it is late in the year and sometimes we have a propensity to grandstand and try to capture debate in a way that it should not be. I do not think anyone in this country who has any background in civics or who has taken grade 6 social studies could honestly say that in this fiscal year we should shut down the Senate and prevent legislation from passing.
Legislative gridlock is a problem. If we voted to have legislative gridlock in this place, industry would be quite upset about that. The international community would be somewhat shocked, would scratch their heads and wonder why Canadians would be shutting down their constitutional process to have legislation go through.
The follow-up to that would be a lack of investment, capital flight, and implications for the delivery of government programs and services. All of these sorts of things would happen because, constitutionally, this is how legislation is passed in our country.
In the coming days, months and years, the topic of Senate reform and how we deal with that is something with which we will be seized, and we should be. However, shutting down the Senate in this fiscal year is perhaps not the wisest possible course of action.
It is a privilege to stand in this place. There is a certain amount of theatre that happens at certain points of the day, but at the end of the day, especially when we look internationally at some of the unrest that happens in other parts of the world, to stand here, especially as a relatively young woman, in a democracy to debate matters of substance and weight and to speak on behalf of my constituents is a privilege.
There are better things to do with our time than to try to have PR stunts around shutting down our legislative process. Just to re-emphasize, if this funding does not go through, the Senate ceases to operate. I would just ask that perhaps my colleagues across the way could have a little more of a think around the motions they put forward. Surely there are other parts of the estimates that we could have had a very rigorous debate around, such as the efficacy of funding.
Surely, my colleagues opposite cannot expect that the Government of Canada would see legislative gridlock for the next several years. I am not sure what to say. This is kind of crazy. It is just one of those things that we look at and know that we have to speak to it, because we need to have laws passed and we need to have our democracy continue to function.
I hope my colleagues opposite will have a change of heart. Everyone in this place agrees that the topic of Senate reform is one that is worthy. It is one that will have heated debate. There are divisions on how to approach that even within our party structures, within our caucuses.
When we are talking about the business of supply and funding that is going to the Senate, I would like to see legislation continue to pass. I am sure my colleagues opposite who have private members' business on the agenda, would like to see their legislation considered by the other place, hopefully passed and become law.
In the name of sanity, in the name of rationality and in the name of respecting the debate here, I would ask my colleagues to understand that in the next fiscal year we need the Senate to operate in order to pass legislation.