My question is for Senator Gold.

The annual report on the Statutes Repeal Act was tabled in this chamber earlier this year. It lists sections in 21 different laws passed by Parliament that the government has not yet brought into effect.

The government typically waits until the last sitting weeks in December to move a motion to defer the repeal of these uncommenced laws for another year, and we’ve developed a bit of a bad habit in this chamber of just agreeing to it and waving it through.

Senator Gold, would you consider bringing such a motion earlier this time, to allow it to be referred to a committee where senators can get some more information from officials about why these sections — some of which have been on the books for three decades — have not yet been brought into effect?

Thank you for that answer. I appreciate it.

I’m not suggesting a large study, but I think if the Senate needs to agree to these things, if we have a role in the process, perhaps every once in a while for things like this, we should step back, take a look and call officials in. We ought to understand why this keeps happening.