Peter Milliken

[Questions On The Order Paper, September 26th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[Committees Of The House, September 26th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I move:

That the following members be added to the list of associate members of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs: John Cummins, Dick Harris, Elsie Wayne, Hugh Hanrahan and Jane Stewart.

(Motion agreed to.)

[Excise Tax Act, September 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to the hon. member. As he knows, having transferred his question for debate, he now will not get an answer except what I tell him tonight and I do not have an answer for him tonight. He can put his question on the Order Paper again, perhaps in a slightly modified form, and maybe he will get an answer in due course.

I want to recall what happened. The question was put on the Order Paper on April 26, 1994. Officials in the Privy Council Office dispatched the usual inquiries to the appropriate government departments and were advised that four departments or four agencies of the government would be able to provide a satisfactory response to the question.

When the response was received in July, after the House had adjourned for the summer, I had an opportunity to review the response. I take some personal responsibility for this. I concluded that the response was unsatisfactory because only four agencies had been canvassed when in fact the question was not specific as to which agencies might have dispensed the money. In fact it was a question directed to all government departments. Accordingly I asked that all government departments be contacted to ensure that a full answer was given to the hon. member, that the answer be accurate in all respects and to provide an answer in respect of all government grants to businesses.

My request resulted in the answer being sent back to the appropriate government department. The government department in question has not produced an answer to date, despite many memorandums, despite many requests.

I can only say that this particular department is one which in my experience, and that of other members of the House, is slow in responding to this kind of request from the House and from its committees. I am sorry that is the case, but there is nothing further I am able to do at this time except to assure the hon. member that if he puts a question on the Order Paper along similar lines I will personally speak to the minister of the department and urge that speed follow in the preparation of the answer to his question.

[Excise Tax Act, September 25th, 1995]

Williamstown.

[Questions On The Order Paper, September 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[Committees Of The House, September 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, if the House gives its consent, I move that the 87th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented to the House earlier this day, be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to.)

[Committees Of The House, September 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I

have the honour to table the 87th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which lists the members of the Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament as well as the associated members of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

With leave of the House, I intend to move for concurrence in this report later this day.

[Government Response To Petitions, September 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to three petitions.

[House Of Commons, September 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that all members of the committee are striving to make this House a more welcome place for persons who represent the diversity of this country.

To that end, at our meeting in June of this year there was a discussion that took place in the committee about the advisability of adopting more rigid rules in respect of members who abuse their freedom of speech in this House by using abusive, racist, or sexist language. In that regard, we studied briefly and intend to go back to studying the examples set in other jurisdictions where for example members are suspended for a more extended period than is now the case, where there is a loss of pay for members who engage in this kind of conduct, where there is a loss of travel and telephone privileges in respect of those members, and where there is expulsion from the parliamentary precinct, not just from the House, for members who engage in this kind of conduct. All those matters are being considered by the committee at this time.

[Manganese Based Fuel Additives Act, September 22nd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I think you would find the consent of the House to call it 1.30 p.m.