I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Genuis.
I just have a couple of quick points, the first in regard to the wait times at Service Canada. I just brought that to your attention. We've received calls from constituents saying it's hard to get through to Service Canada. This is a recent situation, and hopefully you can look at that. The minister's been in government now for half a year, and this is a recent problem. So I don't know what has changed at Service Canada recently, but it is a recent problem.
In talking to the numerous stakeholders in Canada regarding seniors, there is a common request to have a minister for seniors. Now, Minister Mihychuk said that you have a minister for youth—and I believe that is the Prime Minister himself—and previous parliaments have had a minister for seniors. We find ourselves living in a unique time. One in six Canadians is a senior—I'm one of them. There are seniors around this table, Mr. Chair, and it's a growing number. It's one in six right now; in seven years it will be one in five; and in 14 years it will be one in four. There's this major shift in Canada, and Canada does not have a minister for seniors. I'd encourage you to maybe raise that around the cabinet table because it's very important and very concerning for a number of Canadians that there is no minister for seniors.
They are also asking for a national seniors' strategy. To spend money, and a lot of money without a plan.... You must have a target to be able to hit it, and so you must have a strategy. So there's a call for a national seniors' strategy and also a national palliative care strategy. That was supported in the last Parliament by Liberals and Conservatives, and the NDP, the Green Party, and the Bloc. There was almost unanimous support in the last Parliament for a national strategy on palliative care. It's critical. It's needed to take care of our seniors.
One last quick point, and then I'll hand this over to Mr. Genuis.
British Columbia is one of the economic engines in Canada and LNG is the future. We have a number of MPs from British Columbia. LNG is one of the cleanest sources of energy in the world, and if we get LNG—liquefied natural gas—shipped into Asia, it will provide a much cleaner energy source for Asia. Instead of burning coal, they would burn natural gas. It's safe, it creates jobs. What is unique right now is the real concern that you see expressed in B.C. newspapers about the decision on the LNG projects in British Columbia. The opportunity to get these billions of dollars in investments is right now, and there seems to be a delay from the government. I encourage the government, the ministers, to really consider this. If we delay, we may lose this opportunity that would benefit B.C. and Canada.