John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

I do not wish to re-open that debate. I remember that the All-Party Committee on the Constitution had hearings on the question of abortion which went on for a long time. Senator O'Toole and I were involved in a sub-committee of the finance and the public service committee which dealt with ethics and the whole question of the Blue Book. It was an onerous commitment. It has been my experience that the enthusiasm of Members to be on committees is matched only by their reluctance to attend when the committees meet. We need to be careful about wanting to be on committees since there is an attendant obligation to attend meetings. That is not to say there should not be substitutes. People can be unavailable for good reasons and substitutes should be provided for.

We regulate our own affairs but in the case of joint committees, it is appropriate that the other House has an input and there must be a rational way to deal with that. It is necessary that there should be enough committees for the various Departments because the committee work of the other House is increasingly being done in select committee. That is a good way to do it because such work is done much better in that smaller and more intimate environment. That has to be taken into account and is one of the reasons each Department needs a select committee of the other House to deal with Committee Stages of Bills.