Madam Speaker, the point is that we are here today on the concurrence motion because of Conservatives' unwillingness to let us vote on a motion that they tabled. Just think about that for a second.
For anybody out there who might be watching the debate, who may have just happened to come across the channel and who is just watching for a second, I want to tell them about what has been going on in their House of Commons. Conservatives, 29 sitting days ago, introduced a motion calling on the House to send a particular order from the Speaker to committee so the committee could deal with it there, and then the committee would send it back to the House.
Rather than actually letting us vote on their motion, the Conservatives have put up over 170 speakers, of which there have been only approximately 190 in total. The remaining political parties have put the rest of the speakers up. The Conservatives have put up over 170 speakers, but that is not where their filibustering ends. They have also moved concurrence motion after concurrence motion.
Last week we were debating a concurrence motion on a report that had been tabled three years ago. We are now debating a one-sentence report from a committee that was tabled in March of this year. Conservatives are treating the House as though it were a joke. They are not letting us do the business we need to do.
I will conclude my remarks where I began them. There are so many things we could be talking about right now. We could be talking about meaningful ways to impact the lives of Canadians. We cannot do that because Conservatives are absolutely refusing to let us. I am sure Conservatives have a position on the government's legislation that it indicated last week it would be introducing, on GST and the worker rebate. I would love to hear what their position is.
I would love for the Conservatives to let the issue go to committee and let us actually do what they are asking us to do through their motion so we can debate the legislation that was just announced. I would love to know whether the Leader of the Opposition will free them and let them vote their conscience on it.
I would love to know whether their constituents support removing the GST for a two-month period, at a time when Canadians could particularly use it, at a time when a lot of small businesses and a lot of restaurants, in particular independent restaurants, which typically see downtime in January and February, could really benefit from removing the GST and seeing more people during those two particular months to help with their businesses and to help our economy.
I am sure that the vast majority of people, whatever number, as big or perhaps as small as it may be, who are watching the debate right now would rather listen to a debate on that subject than on a one-sentence report that was moved in a committee in March. The report must have been so important to Conservatives that they had to wait nine months before they could actually move a motion on it.
That is where we are right now. We are going to continue to listen to Conservatives, but there genuinely is a way out, which is for the Bloc or the NDP to say that maybe they have gone a little too far, that maybe they have done their bit, that they have pushed it.
I know that the NDP cares about the issue, in particular what the government announced last week. It was the leader of the NDP who insisted that he take credit for all of it the day before it was even introduced. He had to be the first one out of the gate. That is fine. The New Democrats wants to be the adults in the room and work with the government. Let them have the credit. They can go ahead and take it, but could we at least have a discussion about what is important to Canadians?
I know that the NDP, and the Bloc for that matter, knows that the procedural tactics mean absolutely nothing to Canadians, but both of those parties are just petrified of the perception that they might be working with the government. People come up to me in my community and ask what is going on in Parliament, saying that we were working and that it was working so well for so long, that we were getting stuff done here, getting new legislation, bringing in pharmacare, dental care and all of this stuff, and that now it is like nothing.
All I can really say is that, yes, we had a great relationship with the NDP. We were able to do stuff together. It is not a coincidence that when the New Democrats decided they did not want to play ball anymore and wanted to throw their bikes in the ditch and go home, which was back in August, suddenly this place became dysfunctional. That is when all this happened.