Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I express a concern that, first of all, we had agreed we were going to have a very broad discussion on this issue, yet today's representations very much devolved into a case-by-case discussion. I think that is influencing where we are at right now.
My concern with the motion is that I don't see any discussion regarding the responsibility of Canadians travelling abroad. All I'm hearing is the rights of Canadians and the responsibility of government.
When we had the Department of Foreign Affairs here the other day they were talking about the importance of educating Canadians who were travelling abroad. They talked about the number of resources that we have put in as government over the years to ensure that information is available to travellers. They talked at great length about the registry of Canadians abroad. They told us there are consular services that are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We also heard that the Department of Foreign Affairs puts a travel advisory on their website and they do regular updates on those travel advisories.
In the discussion of this motion, for me to be comfortable with it, there would need to be some discussion in there about the responsibility of travellers. Does this mean that Canadian travellers are going to be legislated now to register with the Department of Foreign Affairs before they can travel? Does it mean that they are going to be denied visas to countries where there is a travel warning in place that the Department of Foreign Affairs has established and kept updated? Does it mean that travellers are now by law going to have to assign a power of attorney for personal care and property so that someone in Canada, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, has the right to have access to their personal information? Is that going to be part of that legislation?
All I see in this motion is responsibility put on the government, but I don't see a balance in there. Before I could support any sort of a motion, I would think I would need to see that.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.