Mr. Speaker, after eight years of speaking in the House, I am once again honoured to rise today to speak about this particular private member's bill, because it fundamentally deals with how we love and support our communities.
Some time ago at the heritage committee, I had the honour of witnessing Senator Mercer's bill and hearing him talk about how he so passionately believed in this. He has been such a strong advocate for the necessity of what we are now doing that he impressed everyone at committee.
We talked about many aspects of establishing this philanthropy day, including charities and how they work throughout this country. Here I will for a moment be somewhat provincially biased in saying that Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the statistics, is by far one of the most giving provinces in this country. That is for the record, of course.
I also want to talk about the fact that Canadians in general are very giving, because we are passionate and have a belief, to our central core, about who we are as a community and how we love our communities and children. As a result, there are millions, if not billions, of dollars devoted to philanthropy in this country. We have to look at the essential character of this country and recognize the people who have given so much of their time and finances that they have made this country as great as it is.
As I have said before, when it comes to volunteering time, there are 200 communities in my riding alone and the amount of money saved by volunteers providing essential services to our communities is absolutely phenomenal. The measure of humanity involved is absolutely phenomenal. To declare a national philanthropy day as a token is well worth receiving by anyone who volunteers in this country on behalf of any Canadian.
I would like to congratulate everyone who has spoken on this bill. I would also like to congratulate Senator Terry Mercer of Nova Scotia and my hon. colleague from Halifax West who brought this forward. To the people who spoke on this, I say congratulations. This is an immeasurable token that we can give to people who give of their time and finances. What a beautiful day it will be to recognize people who give so much to their communities, provinces and country.
On that note, I would like to seek consent for the following motion, that at the conclusion of today's debate on Bill S-201, An Act respecting a National Philanthropy Day, all questions necessary to dispose of Bill S-201 be deemed put and that the bill be read a third time and now pass.