Madam Speaker, it really is a great pleasure to be joining today's debate, and I have been listening with interest to the contributions from colleagues from all parties. It is a refreshing change from the debate that we are used to. It is great to hear the ideas coming forth, and the fact that so many people are engaged in this debate shows the level of interest.
I remember when I was first elected in 2015 and first received a copy of our gigantic House of Commons Procedure and Practice. I enjoyed going through it, and I admit that I was a bit of geek in trying to discover all the rules and procedures by which we operate. They are very much rooted in centuries of use, much of it inherited from the United Kingdom.
I am going to approach today's debate more from the perspective of a member of the opposition. The great Stanley Knowles gave a speech to the Empire Club in 1957. He stated:
It is the opposition's right to insist at all times on the full protection of the rules of debate. The government is entitled to that same protection, but in addition it has its majority with which to establish its will. The opposition has only the rules for its protection, hence the authorities on parliamentary procedure emphasize the greater importance to the opposition of the only protection it has, the protection of the rules.
We, of course, are in a minority situation, but in the last four years during the previous Parliament, the protection of those rules was very important to the members who sat in the opposing benches.
As the first part of my remarks on this debate, one of the things I would like to look at is the amount of time we devote to Private Members' Business. We have one hour scheduled for Private Members' Business each day of the week. For a member of Parliament to introduce a piece of legislation is indeed a huge honour, and I do not think that the government of the day has a monopoly on good ideas. Most of the time in the House, of course, is devoted to Government Orders. If we were to allocate more time for Private Members' Business to allow legislation to come through at a much faster pace, I think that would contribute to giving a lot more equality to the many great ideas that are out there.
For example, in the last Parliament's lottery, I drew the 159th spot. It took four whole years to come up to my turn, and then the House adjourned right before I was scheduled for my first hour of debate. It took us four years in the 42nd Parliament to cover 158 positions. I think that such a pace in examining legislation is far too slow and that we could really benefit by devoting more time to the consideration of Private Members' Business, be it bills or motions. I believe all MPs sitting in our House, not just members of the cabinet, have good ideas to share, and they should be given a full airing.
One other thing I would like to see the procedure and House affairs committee examine is the opportunity for MPs to launch a take-note debate based on the petitions they bring to the House. Former Speakers have agreed that the right of petitioning a Parliament for redress of grievances is certainly one of the fundamental principles of our Constitution. Petitioning the Crown and later Parliament for redress of a grievance originated in 13th century England. That is how old this practice is.
As it stands, MPs are allowed to have a short introduction when they table a petition, and then the government has 45 days in which to respond. Many times, when members of the opposition get that government response, they may not find it to be very satisfactory. However, we could have a mechanism that would allow MPs, once they had received the government response, to launch some kind of a take-note debate, especially for petitions with signatures that exceeded a certain threshold and showed there was great interest right across the country. Maybe we could allocate spots based on individual standings of the parties, but we could have a certain amount of time for people to bring forth for debate a petition that was of great national importance and explore why the issue needed to be part of the government's agenda. Such a measure could also give members of the opposition a lot more airtime to bring forth their constituents' concerns.
I also want to spend some time talking about how we can improve question period and debate in general. I often tell my constituents that question period is an hour of my life I will never get back each day. Trying to put forward a thoughtful question in 35 seconds and get a thoughtful response in 35 seconds, if we are honest with ourselves, is basically theatre.
I found it so refreshing over the summer when we, as a collective body, were sitting as part of the special committee on COVID-19. We had those five-minute spots where we could have that back-and-forth with a minister. One could have a bit of a longer introduction to one's question, ask the question, and then get the minister's response. Also, five minutes allows enough time to launch a rebuttal to the minister's response.
This would do two things: force ministers to go more in depth, because they could not just give the same canned answer, and force members of the opposition, if they actually did get an answer to their question, to change tack and really go with the flow of debate. I would love to see the Procedure and House Affairs Committee expand on that five minutes.
We also need to look at increasing the number of spots during the adjournment proceedings debate, which is a mechanism for MPs to follow up on a question that was asked during question period. Currently there are only three questions at a time, and they follow the format of a four-minute debate, a four-minute reply, a one-minute rebuttal and then a one-minute closing by the parliamentary secretary. This would be expanding that a bit more.
Those are two examples for the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to examine in our debate structure: first, reforming questions to allow for that five-minute exchange, and maybe looking at whether that four, four, one and one debate format can fit into other areas of the House.
Another aspect I would really like to see is regarding the Standing Orders. Our Standing Orders, as they are currently written, allow each year, during the main estimates, the Leader of the Opposition to select two particular ministries that the committee of the whole can question. I would like to see that mechanism expanded. I really enjoy the committee of the whole format, where a member has 15 minutes to use in any way they choose. They can make part of it their speech or have a back-and-forth question period, but it is 15 minutes. During the four hours scheduled, it really allows members to have in-depth back-and-forth.
Either we expand the number allowed during the main estimates, or we expand the number of times it happens each year. I really think that would do more justice. It would allow members of Parliament who are not members of the governing party to have more interactions to hold the government to account.
I have heard a lot of comments on how we make Parliament more family-friendly. I agree with some of my NDP colleagues who said no to eliminating a Friday sitting. I still believe that Friday sitting is important, and I am speaking as an MP who resides in a riding that is about as far away from Ottawa as one can get. For me, it is a nine-hour journey door to door.
We should be looking at making sure child care spaces are available to staff and MPs on the Hill, so parents see politics as a worthwhile enterprise. As well, in May and June, we have two five-week blocks separated by one constituency week. Why are we negotiating and scheduling five-week blocks of sittings? Could we not have a structure in place for our calendar where we have two-week blocks of sittings interspersed by one-week constituency weeks? That way MPs would not need to feel the pressure of travelling back to their ridings every weekend because they would be in Ottawa for a maximum of two weeks.
This is a great debate. I am really privileged to have been able to take part in it. I will conclude now, and I welcome any questions or comments my colleagues have.