Hon. Jane Cordy: Thank you, Senator Tannas. This is an extremely important issue. I think we were both interviewed by the same newspaper last week, and we both expressed frustration about how to solve the problem. I had quite a lengthy discussion with the reporter, and you throw out one idea and, “Well, what about this?” “What about that?”

Senator Carstairs, when she was leader, was very good about saying that if bills didn’t arrive by a specific date in June and December, because those months seemed to be the trouble spots, then they wouldn’t be dealt with. The challenge is that works if it’s a majority government on the other side. It doesn’t necessarily work if it’s a minority government, because it would be very easy to delay passage of bills on the other side, so that deadline would not be reached.

I am pleased that you brought it up for discussion, because I think we really need a thorough dialogue on this.

This is sort of a silly question, because delays are used anyway, but how do we ensure that the Rules are used not to expedite legislation, but not to delay it either? How do we work together to make sure that the process is fair to all sides? There may be 5 or 10 sides to an issue, but for simplicity’s sake, how do we ensure that all sides get a hearing in a fair period of time — so that there is no dragging it out, that we pass the date of December 5 and it’s no longer going to be dealt with — but, on the other hand, that we not rush through, skip over and not allow for healthy debate on a bill, a piece of legislation? You spoke a lot about tools. How do we use our tools effectively to ensure that it’s a fair debate?

Senator Tannas: You raise a couple of good points. Number one, on the behaviour side, is communication with the other side. If we know what the committee will need in terms of time and we have a reasonable sense of a bill and what it will take in order for it to be thoroughly debated, we could communicate that to the House and say, “If you want this done before we rise, we need this amount of time.” We can say, “Well, you know, then the folks on the other side, whoever the opposition is, have an easy point to which they can delay it.”

However, that doesn’t all hang together, because at some point they negotiated to drop it on our laps on the last day. If they negotiated to drop it on our laps on the last day, before they all left, they could negotiate to drop it in our laps two weeks before the last day, if they know that is well and truly the last day.

I think something can be done vis-à-vis the behaviour and expectations on the other side, because there has to be help from the other side as well. It comes back to this issue of whether they really appreciate or think about the amount of time that the other chamber needs.

I think we should work on solving our problem and let them work on solving their side of the problem as well. Hopefully, through good communication, we can at least make a start on that.