Carleton? Let us see if we can make that happen. The point is I look forward to that debate. I really do.
I believe in Parliament. I believe in the Standing Orders. I also believe what the opposition is doing today is childish and inappropriate, and of great disservice to Canadians.
Parliamentarians who believe in the importance of our rules should listen and read some of the statements the Conservative Party made two or three years ago. Conservative members should reflect on their behaviour from two or three years ago. They should take a look at what took place in the procedure and House affairs committee. I could cite many examples to demonstrate the amount of hypocrisy we are seeing from the other side.
Ultimately, I hope the motion is defeated. I really do. If it is defeated, I am open to looking at ways we can improve the functionality of this chamber. I believe in this chamber. I think that each and every one of us is blessed in many ways by having a seat here. I am very grateful to the residents of Winnipeg North for entrusting me to be their representative.
I will continue, as much as I possibly can, to ensure that this chamber remains effective in meeting the needs of Canadians in all regions of our country. That allows for debates on private members' business, opposition day motions, government bills and everything else that comes to the floor of the House of Commons.
I am prepared, as the Prime Minister has clearly indicated, to listen to what Canadians want. Canadians want opposition parties and government to work together on the important issues that our country is facing today. We will stand up for that on this side of the House, day in and day out.
With respect to why the Conservatives brought this motion today, I have heard members say that it is a punishment issue. They thought we were absolutely fixated on making today an opposition day. Again, that is just not true. I stood right here in my place yesterday and made the suggestion that we use today to debate the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement. I asked the House for support to do that. The opposition chose not to have that debate today.
Now the Conservatives are criticizing us because we are having this debate, because Friday is the opposition day. Again, there is a word that comes to mind. I think they need to reflect on their behaviour and understand the important role that all of us have been asked to fill.
Let us look at the rules with regard to private members' business and government business.
There was a time when time allocation was not used all that often. A number of years ago, time allocation started to become an effective tool for House management. When I sat in opposition, I did not like the use of time allocation. As I said when I was in opposition, unfortunately if there is no sense of co-operation in the passing of government bills, time allocation is needed.
For those following the debate, the reason for this is that it is virtually unlimited. The House of Commons could spend a full year of the chamber's debate time on one bill. The Conservatives could force the government to bring in time allocation by choosing to put up speakers endlessly on pieces of legislation, and they know that.
We have seen in recent years that even when the Conservatives support a piece of legislation they will continue to put up speakers, challenging and baiting the government to bring in time allocation. There have been situations where the NDP has supported the government in bringing in time allocation because it recognized some of the pieces of legislation the members wanted to see passed. The only way they were going to be passed was with time allocation.
Were Conservatives thinking about Canadians then? No. Are they thinking about Canadians today with this motion? I do not believe it for a moment. I look forward to the debate with the member opposite who offered to have that debate. The Conservatives want to talk about private members. The nice thing about private members is that members from all political parties get to bring forward legislation, and sometimes it is very substantial. Other times it is still important and good legislation, and it passes quite easily. Often there are many members who want to speak to a private member's bill, but they cannot speak because it is a very well-defined amount of time.
If a member brings in a private member's bill, there are two hours of debate at second reading. Then it goes to committee and it has a maximum amount of time there. Then it comes back to the House at report stage and third reading for a combined two hours.
That means a very small number of MPs can contribute to the debate. It is one of the ways in which private members' business is allowed to get through. I believe that we need to start looking at how we can ensure that not only private members' business gets through the House, but also how government bills get through the House.
I am an advocate of those types of reforms because I believe there are many issues that we could debate. If we could figure it out, maybe we could have more opposition days, but we need to realize that legislation is important, whether it is from private members or the government. We need to come up with a way. I challenge the opposition Bloc, NDP, the Greens and even my Conservative friends to work with the government. Let us work on behalf of Canadians and come up with ways to ensure that legislation, whether it is private members' business or government bills, has a way to proceed through the chamber.
I have ideas I will be happy to share when I have more time to speak. If we can come up with the answer to that in a productive way, then it allows us to have additional debates on some of the issues that members want to talk about. I think coronavirus is a critically important issue for Canadians. There is a legitimate amount of concern that needs to be addressed, whether by the Prime Minister or the Minister of Health. We are doing as much as we can, but maybe we could have more debate if we can nail down the rule changes that are necessary. If we cannot, there are still ways.
In the last two weeks, we have had two emergency debates in the House of Commons. Those were brought forward by opposition members. There are many ways we can deal with the important issues that Canadians face. They are expecting the national government to provide leadership.
I would appeal to all members of the House to look at ways to change our Standing Orders, and work together trying to come up with ways to improve this chamber. That is what is in the best interests of Canadians. That is the reason why my recommendation is that we vote against the motion. My commitment is to work with all members of the House to ensure that we have a more functional House so that all Canadians will benefit from rule changes.