Before we continue, I would remind the hon. member for Mégantic—L'Érable and all hon. members in the House today that when you have reference documents in hand you are not to tear them up.
I checked in the House of Commons Procedure and Practice and on page 612, chapter 13, it says:
Members may hold notes in their hands, but they will be interrupted and reprimanded by the Speaker if they use papers, documents or other objects to illustrate their remarks.
There was a decision from the Deputy Speaker on May 7, 1999. The Deputy Speaker at the time indicated that:
The hon. member for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys is an experienced and capable member of this House and he knows it is quite wrong to use props. Tearing up bills and other papers in the course of his speech is surely using the document as a prop. I know that he is excited about the subject....
I just want to say that I understand that the member is very passionate about it, but that the House will not tolerate having papers ripped up and I assume that the member will be picking it all up and not leaving it for the pages.
Resuming debate. The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.