Madam Speaker, I am going to plagiarize my colleague from Calgary Shepard by reading a Yiddish quote: “All is not butter that comes from a cow.” I did not imply that the Speakers are going to be partisan on this issue. It is important, though.
I will go back to the words of the parliamentary budget officer that this “contains elements that will undermine the independence and non-partisanship of the PBO”. Anything that we are going to do that would damage the credibility of the parliamentary budget officer by undermining his ability to do his job in a fair, independent, non-partisan way would be damaging, not only to the House but to the country's finances and Canada as a whole.