Mr. Lewis:
Which house leader are you referring to, Mr. Chairman?
There is only one good one.
Order, please. I was referring to the hon. member for Ontario.
Mr. Lewis:
Mr. Chairman, I urge the committee to consider the suggestion of the hon. member for Winnipeg North Centre. Obviously we will have to be here tomorrow, as we cannot finish everything tonight. I understand the other place has adjourned until tomorrow. I see no purpose whatever being served by trying to sit until twelve o'clock. There is no reason we cannot get all the business done tomorrow, and since we have to be back in any event I see no purpose in sitting till midnight. There is sense in sitting long enough to complete the department we are now discussing, and any other department, such as the Post Office Department and the Privy Council. We will not agree to sit until midnight.
Mr. Sfarr:
Mr. Chairman, my suggestion makes a great deal of sense. The suggestion made by the house leader of the N.D.P. will not achieve the purpose he tries to make us believe it will achieve. There are quite a number of departments left to be considered. We will not be meeting tomorrow until 2.30 p.m., and by the time orders of the day and other matters are disposed of we will only have a short period of time to consider the remaining departments. We may or may not finish them by six o'clock, so there will be no opportunity for the other place to consider these estimates. If we completed these estimates and interim supply tonight the other
place would have the whole afternoon to deal with them, and we could have royal assent at six o'clock. Surely that makes good sense.
[DOT] (10:10 p.m.)
Mr. Lewis:
Mr. Chairman, I think it would make much better sense-and I am going to make the suggestion on my own-that we agree to finish the departments mentioned by us, and agree that tomorrow we will finish the remaining departments by a certain hour. I do not think it makes any sense to sit until midnight when the business is not going to be completed.
Mr. Siarr:
That is the basis upon which I suggested that we sit until midnight.
Mr. Lewis:
If the hon. member for Ontario suggested that tomorrow we try to finish the estimates, say by five o'clock, so that the Senate will have an hour to complete them, that would make sense. But it does not make sense to sit till midnight tonight.
Mr. Siarr:
An hour for the Senate to complete their consideration of these estimates? It took us about 12 days. You don't make sense at all.
Mr. Lewis:
I certainly do.
Mr. Pennell:
Mr. Chairman, it has been a long day and I hope we have passed through the centre of the little storm here. May I make a special appeal to the house leader for the official opposition to accede to the suggestion that we pass the estimates that have been suggested.
Mr. Siarr:
They said just agriculture.
Mr. Knowles:
Post Office and Privy
Council.
Mr. Siarr:
No, Mr. Chairman. Unless my suggestion is considered, we will not agree.
Mr. Pennell:
Mr. Chairman, would the patient and co-operative opposition house leader bear with me for just a moment? I ask that we follow through with the suggestion of the hon. member for York South and deal tonight with the three items suggested by him. Then perhaps we could agree to deal with the rest of the supplementary estimates by four o'clock tomorrow and deal with interim supply between, say, four o'clock and five o'clock.
Mr. Siarr:
That makes no sense at all.
March 26, 1968
Mr. Lewis:
That kind of suggestion makes sense to me, Mr. Chairman, because I do not like the idea of sitting on for just anything.
You agreed to sit on last night.
Mr. Lewis:
We sat until after eleven o'clock last night to complete something. We are ready to sit on tonight in order to finish the estimates of the departments we have suggested. We have always supported the idea of allocating time, and we support it now.
Oh, oh.