Mr. Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North is quite good at defending the usually indefensible. He is a member who stands up quite often in the House and it is a testament that he does defend his government ably. He stands up when no other member wishes to.
On the budget, all budget measures have a fixed timeline for debate. They are almost automatically passed at a fixed time from when the budget is tabled. It is not as if it is a large piece of legislation that is separate, that can be completely debated by all members of the House. There is a fixed timeline.
On the PROC matter, I would feel much more confident in the ability of PROC to render a neutral decision without outside interference if the government House leader did not sometimes show up late at night during those conversations or pull members away or suspend the meetings in order for them to have a conversation on the side somewhere. Of course, I believe that the members of PROC do a reasonable and good job. I believe in the chair's, the member for Yukon's, ability to run the committee in a very efficient manner. I have had absolutely no problems when I have been at PROC with his chairmanship of the committee. He does an exemplary job of it. However, I would feel much better if the government House leader would not get involved in the committee's work.