Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This amendment is about the rights of nature. This is a conversation that's been happening among Canadians as well as internationally. We are giving people in Canada the right to a healthy environment, but also many advocates are arguing that forests, rivers and seas in and of themselves as legal entities can have rights.
I want to give a shout-out to my colleague Mr. Boulerice, who is currently working to protect the St. Lawrence River and giving that body of water legal rights. There are advocates in my home community of Victoria in the Songhees and Esquimalt nations who are also looking to have important areas and pieces of nature recognized as living entities that have legal rights, so this motion speaks to that, recognizing that nature has a right to be protected, preserved and restored.
Thank you.