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Procedure and House Affairs committee I believe that Parliament should take an initiative--and I would like to see it start with this committee--on defining what is a cabinet confidence and what isn't, because I believe that the present rules create a lot of the problems. The present rule is that what the government
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee That was, I believe, what Mel Cappe said to you, wasn't it, among perhaps others?
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Mr. Walsh, yes.
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Yes, well--
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee It's an immensely complicated thing, though. I'll give you an example. Last year and the year before, this House, this Parliament, passed budget implementation acts. In these were bills that in my view really were not implementing the budget but were separate things affecting en
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee But let me just say one last thing here, sir, please. Really, we are in that situation, as I said earlier, of buying a pig in a poke when we pass legislation. We don't know what the cost estimates--
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Shall I answer that?
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee I'll give you a bit of background. I was a professor of political studies and I was also a professor of physical and health education. I often explain the answer to why both--it's not the true one, but I'll give it to you anyhow--is that politics is a contact sport. That's what
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee What we see, I believe, in the statute governing the Parliamentary Budget Officer is a compromise between those who wanted an autonomous budget office similar to the Congressional Budget Office in the United States, those who didn't want anything, and those who were at other part
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Sir, I detect a bit of partisanship in your question, but I will make an answer that I think governments of all stripes and bureaucracies of all stripes prefer to keep information to themselves than let it out, because it's power. Since the function of Parliament is ultimately
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Yes. You're the Parliament for all of Canada; as far as I know, Canada includes provinces and territories, and Quebec is still, thank God, part of Canada. I think it's an artificial distinction to say that although we are legislating in a national Parliament, we're not going to p
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Well, what the report could say is that you consider the information inadequate because it didn't include the costs for all Canadians and for all governments. If the federal government is going to do something and the federal Parliament is going to approve it, it should know th
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks
Procedure and House Affairs committee Who knows what is going to happen out of this.
March 17th, 2011Committee meeting
Dr. Ned Franks