January 24, 1958 (23rd Parliament, 1st Session)

Mr. Quelch:

Yes, hoping they would amount to something. They did amount, perhaps, to a little, but not to very much; therefore we were glad to hear the minister say not long ago that he intended to introduce more amendments.
The first question that comes to mind is why the minister should have waited for second reading before amending his bill. Why did he not amend the bill before it was introduced in the house? The minister has stated that he consulted with farm organizations before the bill was introduced. Surely if he had done that he would have realized from their submissions that the bill in the form in which it was placed before the house was totally inadequate to deal with the distressed condition of agriculture.
When he made these changes he told us he was making them because members of the Conservative party had asked him to do so. If this is correct one might well ask why
members of the Conservative party waited until second reading before asking the minister to change the bill. Why did the members of the Conservative party not ask him to make those changes before the bill was introduced in the house? Does this mean that the members of the Conservative party had not seen the bill before it was introduced in the house?