Member for British Columbia Southern Interior  Mr. Speaker, as I ride off into the sunset later on this year, I would like to pay tribute to all those who made the past nine years the most enriching experience of my life. I thank my wife Ann and my staff, both past and present, for their loyalty and service to our constituent

Military Contribution Against ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from British Columbia for her question and thank her for her hard work on this file. The way I look at it is this. We have seen here that the training mission has gone into a combat mission. We do not believe, and I do not believe,

Military Contribution Against ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question and clarification. I will try to be quick, in following your wishes. I believe it is mainly up to the countries in the region and I am happy to see that other countries, other than the ones I mentioned, are in ther

Military Contribution Against ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you for the wise words you just said, encouraging us to have a full debate and giving us time to answer questions. I wish I could say that it gives me pleasure to speak to this motion. Unfortunately, I cannot. It is not with pleasure that I ris

Electricity Meters  Mr. Speaker, there is growing evidence that wireless technology may be detrimental to our health and that the current Safety Code 6 is outdated. In this regard, I would like to thank my colleague from Oakville for introducing Bill C-648, which would require health warning labels

Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. The answer is no. As I said in my speech, we have seen the same thing with a number of bills. The government wants to change the policy but does not allocate the necessary resources. It wants to send our soldiers to war, but th

Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act  Mr. Speaker, I agree with intent of the question. The fact is that we have existing laws and if we add a third or fourth law, it does not mean the problem will go away. I would like to share with the member an experience I had last week. I was driving in my riding and saw a hit

Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act  Mr. Speaker, in preparing for this brief speech I was not exactly sure how I wanted to begin. However, after reading my background notes I am left to wonder why this piece of legislation has even been introduced. It is becoming evident to me that the current Conservative governme

Anti-terrorism Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, one would think that when we had a new perceived or real threat, we would do our homework. One would think we would look at the existing legislation to see what was working and what was not. One would think we would look at the resources that should be there, and if

Anti-terrorism Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her comments. It is good that she had a chance to make them. I agree. I have been going through all sorts of papers over the last few weeks. One of the common themes is that there is not this oversight. One of the common themes

Anti-terrorism Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, let me start by saying how proud I am of our leader and our party for taking a principled stand against this flawed piece of legislation. As I move closer to retirement, I have been reflecting on my past nine years here in Ottawa. I often think about all those indi

Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, as we have seen in the press, former CSIS officer François Lavigne is alarmed by the Conservative government's new bill and believes that the measures proposed are unnecessary and a threat to the rights of Canadians. We know that CSIS was created in 1984. Prior to t

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions. The first petition is from over 70 residents of Rossland and Trail, also from Alberta and Ontario, who call on Parliament to refrain from making changes to the Seeds Act and to ensure that we enshrine in legislation the inalienable rights of fa

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, the second petition has over 250 names from Nelson, Grand Forks, Midway, Greenwood, Rossland, Trail, and surrounding areas. The petitioners call on the government to adopt international aid policies that support small family farmers, especially women, that recognize

West Kootenay Regional Airport  Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to see an update in the Castlegar News on our West Kootenay Regional Airport. A big thanks goes to to city councillor Florio Vassilakakis for explaining the regional navigation performance system necessary to upgrade our airport. Due to our narrow val