I think I should talk to the extension, and then if you want me to talk directly to the motion, I can certainly do that and I will.
I would like to go back to the House of Commons procedure and maybe remind people that we are obliged as committees, within 60 sitting days or from the date of reference, to report back with a private member's bill to the House, with or without amendment. Therefore, the bill's proponents need to do a couple of things: either recommend that the bill not be proceeded with further or request a one-time extension of 30 days to consider the bill or to refer it back to the House.
In the case that they are going to ask for an extension, reasons need to be given. Clearly, no reasons have been given today for an extension, and I'm arguing that there are no reasons for it to be extended. I certainly didn't hear any from the mover of the motion. His reason may be that his amendments might not be passed by 5:30, but he doesn't know that.
As Mr. Rathgeber pointed out, we had another hour here, and now we are spending it discussing this motion rather than discussing the amendment, so if there is any interference that's been run on getting this back to the House, it's been done by the NDP. If they are going to pursue this, they need to have some reasons to give you if this is going to go back to the House, and we certainly haven't got those.
We are told that after considering a private member's bill, the committee may report it to the House but report that it does not believe that the bill should proceed any further. Once a report is presented, a notion of motion can occur and the report is automatically placed on the notice paper. The motion stands in the name of the member who has presented the report, usually the chair of the committee. Well, Mr. Chair, that doesn't apply to this one.
In terms of an extension of consideration, we're told that if the committee feels it will not be able to complete its consideration of a private member's bill referred to it within 60 days, it may request an extension of 30 further sitting days, and only one of those can be sought.
Again, Mr. Chair, there need to be some reasons for that to go ahead, and I certainly haven't heard any.
I guess I am willing to give up the floor to hear those reasons. Then I would probably like to address them as well.
However, I don't see any valid reasons; it looks like the committee has done good work on this, and it's time to report back.