Mr. PINARD:

Before this item is passed I wish to say a few words. My hon. friend the leader of the opposition acts as though he were the representative of the city of Ottawa. It is true the hon. member for Carle-ton (Mr. Boucher) is sitting next to him at the moment. He may act as though he were the representative of the city of Ottawa, but may I tell him that he will never occupy that position, nor will he have a representative from his party in that position.

Mr. PINARD:

No. My hon. friend speaks of an increase paid to seasonal firemen. That applies not only to the city of Ottawa; it applies to other places like Montreal and Toronto, but, of course, not to the village he represents. All those municipalities have firemen and they are all entitled to the same increase. May I say to my hon. friend that the Ottawa people and their representatives are as much awake as he is, but we do not want to disturb the peace of this committee.

Mr. PINARD:

That is about all the hon. member can say. May I say further that the Department of Public Works has at all times done [DOT] the best it could for the general service rendered by these people. We have all classes of labourers working for the Department of Public Works-snow cleaners, window washers, and so on; and they are not being paid a sufficiently high wage. We have tried to do what we could for them, but we have not succeeded at all times. This question is raised to-day because an increase of $5 or $10 a month was granted a year ago to these men. I should like to know who are the men that were raised to $10 a month. I am sure the hon. member for Carleton knows all about it. I ask him to give the answer at once.

Mr. PINARD:

This question has been up many times. The salaries paid to these men are not sufficient. This is not the only case. The government pays less for ordinary labour than does the city of Ottawa. I have not objected to all these questions because I did not want to take up too much of the time of the committee. I think the time of the committee is too precious to be used for this kind of thing-picayune politics; that is what it is. I am sorry that my hon. friend ever thought that he represented the city of Ottawa. We are capable of doing that.

Mr. PINARD:

It all depends. The hon. member says "lady", I do not know whether that is so or not-[DOT]