Finance committee  Well, very quickly, I think that, notwithstanding what happened yesterday, this should still be raised in the House. By having it raised in the House, the Speaker will be able to rule on it and assert Parliament's authority. Essentially, that is what is required. Whether the Speaker will choose to do that or not, or whether he'll say that now it's become a hypothetical question because the press release in question was replaced with a different one that seems to respect the authority of Parliament, well, the Speaker will have to make that decision on his own.

Finance committee  First of all, I don't believe there was ever an order in council passed in order to change that effective date. I don't see that it could have been a cabinet decision or anything like that.

Finance committee  What seems to have happened here—and I'm only going to give you my impression—is that inside several government departments there has been a lack of knowledge regarding how Parliament works. Do the people who made that decision know that there's such a thing as the Royal Assent Act?

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Indeed, I was interviewed by The Globe and Mail at some point a few weeks back. The reporter questioned me as to the activities of the finance department in this regard. At first I didn't believe it. I said, “Well, surely you must be misreading what they're doing.”