Mr. CASGRAIN:

Explain.

Mr. GUTHRIE:

This is merely to extend the operation of the Inquiries Act to international commissions that may desire to take evidence in Canada subject to the control of the governor in council.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

Mr. THOMAS REID (New Westminster):

I would like to direct a question to the Minister of Finance. In view of the fact that under the agreement entered into regarding silver at the last economic conference; that Canada has agreed to purchase 1,671,802 ounces annually for four years and that every

Privilege-Mr. Gott

indication would seem to be that the price of silver is on the rise, will the Minister of Finance say whether Canada has purchased her portion agreed to?

Hon. E. N. RHODES (Minister of Finance) :

I understand that a similar question was put to the Prime Minister the other day.

I can, however, say to my hon. friend that the purchase of silver in conformity with the London agreement will be carried out strictly in conformity with the terms of that agreement.

Mr. E. J. YOUNG (Weyburn):

Is there in the estimates an item providing for that expenditure?

Mr. RHODES:

My hon. friend knows full well there is no such item in the estimates.

Mr. YOUNG:

I am disappointed.

Right Hon. R. B. BENNETT (Prime Minister):

The agreement was not ratified until after the estimates had been submitted.

Mr. VENIOT:

When the committee rose on Wednesday afternoon I was discussing clause 3 of the bill. I wish to direct some further remarks in connection with it in addition to those I have already laid before the committee. As I want to be quite correct in the statements I shall make, and as I intend to offer some suggestions in an attempt to better conditions in the printing bureau in regard to the translation of debates, I shall speak somewhat closely to the notes that I have made. It has not been my practice to read my speeches but I consider this question so important that any suggestions or criticisms I may make should be along definite lines, distinctly understood, and having a basis of correctness.

With that object in view I wish to draw the attention of the committee to the fact that when this bill was up for second reading I stated that the minister could solve the difficulties he had encountered without the introduction of a bill of this kind. At that time I made my suggestions, suggestions which I considered constructive. Those suggestions are to be found in the speech I delivered on March 6 as reported in Hansard at pages 1242-3. I shall read those suggestions again, or rather repeat them. I said it was not fair to criticize a measure unless one was prepared to submit something constructive, and I suggested the following:

Let me, sir, offer some suggestions. First, have it arranged that each department shall have departmental reports ready before the fall of the year and handed to the translators before the English text of the report is printed. At present what do we find? Departmental reports in English are handed to the translators in many cases only after the English edition has come from the printing bureau. This suggests one way of avoiding the tardiness that has worked itself into the printing of the reports. Matters should be so arranged that these reports shall be given to the French translators as soon as the English version is complete, or, better still, as twenty, thirty or forty pages of the copy are completed and certified by the proper authorities, those pages should be handed over to the French translators. It would then be found that the French version would be ready to go to the printer within two or three days after the English version is ready.

Then I went further and said:

It has become an almost universal practice among ministers of the crown-I am not going to include myself in this category; for when I was in the government these reports were ready in time-to delay sending to the printers until the fall of the year the reports for the year ending the previous March 31st. If the minister would issue an order that these reports must be ready soon after parliament prorogued, say the last part of July or the

Translations Bureau

early part of August, there would be no further cause for complaints about tardiness in the printing of those reports.

Further on I made a third suggestion: Do not pass documents to persons outside the service for translation, and fourth: do not allow young bilingual clerks and typists to handle the translation of any documents.

Then fifth:

With reference to the debates of the commons, see that a typewritten copy of the English transcript is handed to the Commons staff of translators just as soon as the English reporters can furnish it, and have the French translators begin translating when they receive that typewritten copy. Instead of doing that, what happens?

And then I go on to explain what happens.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I find that an order in council was passed, I think on May 21st, and laid on the table here last Wednesday. When I was speaking on Wednesday I did not know that that order in council referred to this matter, I learned it the next day in reading the press. Reading that order in council carefully I find that two or three of the most important suggestions made by me on that occasion are included in the document. I am going to read the order in council. It is not necessary to encumber Hansard with the whole of it but, I shall take that part that refers to the point I wish to make. After certain vhereases it says:

That in order to maintain the efficient operation of the printing bureau and to reduce its costs to a satisfactory basis, it is necessary to insure that the supply of printer's copy for printing all departmental reports and' documents shall be balanced uniformly throughout the fiscal year;

That, as the printing bureau is subject to extraordinary demands during the session of parliament for printing and binding the debates and proceedings of the Senate and House of Commons, it is essential for the economic operation of the printing bureau that the printer's copy of all departmental reports to parliament, usually known as "blue books," should be made available to the king's printer, in both English and French, as early as possible after the close of each fiscal year;

That the Secretary of State is reliably informed that the federal government of the United^ States peremptorily insist that the printer's copy for all reports of the several departments of that government shall be available for the printer within three months after the close of their fiscal year; and

That the adoption and strict enforcement of a similar regulation by the government would provide continuous work for the printing bureau uniformly from month to month throughout the fiscal year, and thereby afford constant and continuous employment for the employees of the printing bureau, curtail the excessive cost of overtime night work during the session of parliament, considerably reduce the general expenses of operation of the

printing bureau, and' enable this department of government to provide an adequate and more satisfactory service at considerably less expense;

Therefore His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Secretary of State, is pleased to order and it is hereby ordered that it shall be the express duty of the deputy heads of all departments of government to insist that the printer's copy of all departmental reports, complete in revised typewritten form, in either the English or the French language, shall be delivered to the king's printer on or before the first day of July in each and every year;

Now, Mr. Chairman, right here I shall-

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Bury):

The hon. gentleman has spoken for forty minutes.

Mr. VENIOT:

No, Mr. Chairman, I have

spoken little more than five minutes.

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Bury):

I call the

hon. member's attention to the fact that he spoke half an hour on Wednesday.