Mr. Speaker, it’s good to be back in the House. I wish I could say that the committees of this parliament were busy in the meantime. However, only the Committee on Estimates met. A decade ago, the Committee on Public Accounts had met 14 times by this time since the beginning of January. This year we have not met at all. A decade ago, the Crown Corporations Committee had met 9 times by now since the beginning of January, but that committee has failed to meet this year as well.
Last October, Canada’s Public Policy Forum published recommendations on how to restore trust in our parliaments. They said if they could make one change to rebalance the power between the executive and legislative branches it would be to strengthen parliamentary committees so citizens could channel their input into the policy development process.
Mr. Speaker it’s time for the private members of this House to exercise the powers bestowed on us by the electorate to strengthen our committee system so we can begin to rebuild public trust in the Legislative Assembly.