Mr. SPEAKER:

I have the honour to inform the house that I have received the following message from the Assistant Secretary to His Excellency the Governor General:

Ottawa, September 11, 1945.

Sir:-I have the honour to inform you that the Honourable Thibaudeau Rinfret, Chief Justice of Canada, acting as deputy of His Excellency the Governor General, will proceed to the Senate chamber on Wednesday, September 12, at 5.45 p.m. for the purpose of giving the royal assent to certain bills.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

F. L. C. Pereira, Assistant Secretary to the Governor General.

The Honourable,

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Ottawa.

Explain.

Mr. KNOWLES:

Mr. Speaker, this bill would add to the appropriate section of the Income War Tax Act the following words:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall operate to prevent a minister of the crown from communicating to the Senate or to the House of Commons any information obtained under the provisions of this act.

The purpose of this amendment would be to remove the restrictions as to secrecy now imposed by subsection 1 of section 81, which in my view have the effect of denying to the house information which at times ought to be readily available.

Standing Committees

This amendment would also affect the Excess Profits Tax Act, 1940, since sections 40 to 87 of the Income War Tax Act are, by-section 14 of the Excess Profits Tax Act, made to apply thereto.

Mr. CHURCH:

Communicating information from the cradle to the grave.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

Explain.

Mr. FAIR:

Mr. Speaker, paragraph (i) of section 8 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act, 1935, reads:

-in selling and disposing of wheat as by this act provided, to utilize and employ without discrimination such marketing agencies, including commission merchants, brokers, elevator men, exporters and other persons engaged in or operating facilities for the selling and handling of wheat, as the board in its discretion may determine.

In my opinion and in the opinion of many farmers of western Canada, the present elimination of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange from the business of handling wheat should be continued forever; and this amendment is introduced for the purpose of releasing the Canadian wheat board from the restrictions imposed under this legislation.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

Explain.

Mr. FAIR:

I have introduced this amendment on other occasions, and I feel that this is the appropriate time to re-introduce it, in the hope that, during this session it will be treated as it should be. Section 14 deals with the disqualification of electors, and subsection 2, paragraph (k), states:

[DOT]-in any province, every person who is an inmate of an institution which is maintained by any government or municipality for the housing and maintenance of the poor, if such person is by the law of that province disqualified from voting at an election of a member of the legislative assembly of that province, and did not serve in the military, naval or air forces of Canada in the war of 1914-18.

In the near future, Mr. Speaker, we are going to deal with the question of citizenship. I believe that before our deliberations on that matter are completed, this paragraph should be deleted from the Dominion Elections Act-Let us have democracy throughout our country.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.