Mr. Speaker, I too want to thank the hon. member for bringing this bill forward. I also thank the gentleman from the other place who sponsored it.
We have seen this bill come forward in the House before. As was mentioned, it came before the Canadian heritage committee and it was one of those moments at committee where members really took in what was being said and agreed on everything.
It goes without saying that volunteers have helped build our country. It is on the backs of people who have volunteered their service to the country that we have built the nation we have.
The member for Richmond Hill stated quite succinctly how important volunteers were to our country.
On the weekend, I had an opportunity to be at what is called the “Celebration of Hope”. It is the 24th anniversary of this spectacular event in my riding, where volunteers bring together hundreds of people to raise funds for cancer research.
At that time, I also had the distinct pleasure to present the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal to two people who had helped make this 24-year fundraising campaign such a success, Allan and Betty Bell, two pillars of the community, who despite the fact they suffered the loss of Ms. Bell's daughter and Allen Bell's sister, they took that and built it into something that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over 24 years for our community. It was not just the fact that these two individuals had spent so much time building and putting their time and efforts into making the Celebration of Hope such a success. It was the thousands of people who came together on a Sunday afternoon to hear the stories of people who had been touched by cancer and to hear of the successes that 24 years of fundraising by not only the people in this organization but from across Canada had led to by providing better results for people who suffered from cancer.
I also had the distinct honour this weekend of presenting 17 Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medals to individuals from across Ontario, but predominantly from my riding, who had done the same. They have gone just a bit further, worked just a bit harder and have given a lot of their time and energy to causes to help build our community and our province, and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is an opportunity for us to thank them.
I will not take up too much of the House's time with respect to the bill. It is quite clear that members on all sides of the House are supportive of taking a day and recognizing all the individuals who have helped to build our country and to thank them for their service to their communities and the province. I know we on this side of the House, as well as members on both sides of the House, look forward to moving this bill forward and having that one day a year to build on, as the Prime Minister announced, November 15, the day that we would celebrate our volunteers. He also brought forward the volunteer service awards in recognition of those individuals who had worked so hard. We will build on that. This is a great opportunity for us to do that.
I thank the members of the heritage committee who helped bring this forward very fast and the hon. member for his stewardship of it through the House.