Hear, hear.

Mr. KIDD:

Just a minute. Sometimes I

think the minister gets carried away. It is very difficult to get the Minister of Finance to make a statement. I think hon. members will follow me when I say that when he was Minister of National Defence for over two years we could not get him nailed down to making a public statement in this house. We have the same thing now in connection with the finance department. When we tried to get him nailed down to saying something about policy he journeyed away over to Cornwall one day and then after he left the defence department his successor read a carefully prepared statement complimenting the government on its policy.

What has happened here? This bill has been before us only since the house opened in December. It was actually tabled on November 17 when you went on the radio and tried to tell us about the emergency. You went on the radio with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Trade and Commerce, and you gave us the contents of this bill which was

brought in a couple of weeks later. So I take issue with you. It is being done more or less by order in council, and then you come in and expect the members of this house to agree with you. Since the bill was brought into the house you have made two amendments-

Mr. ABBOTT:

Those amendments have not been moved yet.

Mr. KIDD:

Never mind; the fact is that this is creating hardship for the people of Canada, and if that were not so I would not be making these remarks now. I think some of the blame for this procedure must rest on the Prime Minister and the law clerks. I contend, and I think many agree with me, that in dealing with this bill you should have followed the same procedure as you do when bringing down your budget. In fact, if it is an emergency the house should have been called two weeks earlier.

Mr. ABBOTT:

Submit that to the new committee on rules.

Mr. KIDD:

I am not going to argue one way or the other. When you were replying the other day to the hon. member for Peterborough West, as reported on page 1077 of Hansard, you held up two advertisements in an effort to justify what you are doing.

Mr. ABBOTT:

I know my hon. friend wants to be in order. I believe he is supposed to address the Chair and not use the second person singular.

Mr. KIDD:

I know the Chair pretty well and I will agree with him. While you were speaking you held up one advertisement, and you could have held up two, in an effort to show that everything you had done was quite proper and in order. It is not in order. One advertisement appeared on January 14, and the other a week or so later. You were hoping that the public more or less took those in.

Address the Chair.

Mr. KIDD:

Never mind. You interjected something about the $10 clause, and that is where I want to take issue with you. You referred to the order in council of May 23 which permits Canadians to take across the border United States funds to the amount of 810 and $15 Canadian. Three ladies of my constituency crossed the border and they had to undergo hardship because you did not do what you should have done.

Mr. HARTT:

I rise to a point of order.

Sit down.

Foreign Exchange Conservation

Mr. HARTT:

Will you please stop hollering?-because it will not do you any good. I rise to a point of order.

Look at your assistant, Mr. Abbott.

Mr. HARTT:

I do not expect anything from some hon. gentlemen but grunts, and I do not want the hon. gentleman's advice. I submit, Mr. Chairman, that the speaker who had the floor was entirely out of order. Clause 1 deals with the short title of the bill. We have discussed the principle of the bill-

Mr. FERGUSON:

What is the principle?

Mr. HARTT:

The hon. member would not understand it, not with his brain power. Clause 1, as I said, deals with the short title, which reads:

This act may be cited as the Emergency Exchange Conservation Act.

Either the title is correct or it is not; either it is acceptable or it is not.

Mr. MACDONNELL (Muskoka-Ontario):

The amendment is to determine whether it is correct or not.

Mr. HARTT:

If there is any objection to the title, let it be stated; but I submit, Mr. Chairman, that it is not in order to discuss currency policies or anything else that may come to mind on this particular clause.

Mr. POULIOT:

Speaking to the point of order, Mr. Chairman, I submit that no ruling can be made until the hon. member for Kingston City has finished his argument.