Coquitlam Small Business  Mr. Speaker, recently, I was pleased to join Coquitlam small business owners Zabrina, Justin and Phil on a special video call with our Prime Minister. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many challenges for small businesses, and Zabrina, Justin and Phil's Ninja Bubble Tea is no exception.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I suggest, as I mentioned in my speech, that providing a vast trove of documents that are unfocused and not curated will not help us to get to the bottom of all the things we need to get to the bottom of. This is a massive number of documents for the public service to produce, to translate and so forth, and it would be a massive amount of work for committee members and all other interested parties to go through and—

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I point out that in the last session, the health committee conducted somewhere in the order of 30 meetings on COVID-19, involving something like 78 witnesses, and accumulated about 1,000 pages of documentation. I would very much like to see that report created and delivered to the House with our appropriate recommendations, so we can actually learn from what went on before, before we take on a massive new responsibility that is unfocused and undirected.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I certainly enjoy working with the member on the committee, as I have for a number of years. I should point out that as chair of the committee, I cannot make amendments, but I do not think that is the right approach going forward. It is such a massive all-encompassing motion that we need to break it down into much smaller, manageable pieces.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Richmond Hill. This motion from the member for Calgary Nose Hill includes six exhaustive orders for the production of an extraordinary number of documents. I am not going to go through each of these requests one by one, but I will make some observations.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I would like to first note that medical assistance in dying and a “do not resuscitate” order are fundamentally vastly different concepts. In any event, I believe the checks and balances that are currently in the legislation around mental illness will prevail as we go forward, because this bill would not extend medical assistance in dying to people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, we know that part of the original legislation for medical assistance in dying provided for a review at the five-year mark, and we are coming up to that time. It is very important we exercise that opportunity to look deeply into questions of this kind and canvass them very thoroughly, because it is, as the member noted, a very serious and delicate question.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, yes, I absolutely believe the proper place to deal with this question is during the more fulsome review that should be forthcoming. It is certainly my understanding that mental illness, as a sole underlying factor, would exclude a person from the regime of medical assistance in dying.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, my understanding on this bill regarding a trajectory for an immediately foreseeable death is that, in some cases, the requirement has been reduced, but in other cases, it remains in place. It depends on the nature of the person's underlying condition. I certainly look forward to what I am sure will be a robust debate on medical assistance in dying when the review happens.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question, although I think that was the full focus of my speech, the contention that people whose sole medical condition is a mental illness should not be eligible for MAID at this time. We absolutely need to consider this. It is a very complex issue.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I am delighted to speak today to Bill C-7, an act to amend the Criminal Code, medical assistance in dying. Its proposed Criminal Code amendments to the medical assistance in dying regime are a true reflection of the value we as Canadians ascribe to individual autonomy.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I am particularly interested in the Canada Water Agency and I note that the member has indicated that he is responsible for this file. Could the member give us insight of what the benefits and consequences of this agency will be for us here in British Columbia?

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, the member does not want to support this measure because it will not solve the problem for people with rare diseases. Not implementing this would also not help that problem. I encourage the hon. member to come on board. We can address those problems as part of the implementation of a national pharmacare program.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer to the comments of the member for Vancouver Kingsway. As he remarked, the health committee did a rich study on this a couple years ago. The data is a little older than what Dr. Hoskins used, but the numbers in that report showed that the cost to the public was around $28 billion.

Terry Fox  Mr. Speaker, the Bank of Canada is looking for Canadians to put on the new five-dollar bill. There is no shortage of great Canadians to be recognized in this way, but in this bright firmament, no light shines brighter than Terry Fox. Terry Fox is a Port Coquitlam hometown hero and a national symbol of resilience.