Madam Speaker, all of us wish to have ample time and opportunity to debate those important questions of public policy that come to the floor of the House of Commons. It is the function of House leaders, the government House leader and her counterparts in the other parties, to try to manage the time of the House in such a way as to bring issues forward in an orderly way, provide the opportunities for discussion and debate and ultimately the calling of votes, the divisions and decisions that need to be taken.
The procedure in our rules requires that the House leaders work together to come to reasonable accommodations. When that cannot be done, when consent is not forthcoming, and when people will not agree that the debate will run from A until B and then we will vote, when there is no certainty in that process, the government House leader has no alternative when consent fails but to try to organize the affairs of the House using time allocation.
Those motions invariably provide for further opportunity for debate before votes are ultimately taken. It is a procedure that no House leader likes to use, but it is necessary in certain circumstances to make sure that the House does not just debate eternally, but in fact comes to decisions on issues that matter to Canadians.