Mr. Chair, I appreciate the efforts of our colleague, but particularly right now when in the House of Commons we're facing some significant challenges about respect or lack thereof for parliamentary process, I don't support this. It's not the fact that I have an issue with the wording or the intent of the motion. It has everything to do with the fact that this committee just did a review of the AbitibiBowater deal. Just this morning we heard an outline of what the report should include. I think out of respect for the process, we should see what the report says and let the committee do its work before we put forward a recommendation based on the results of that report. That's the first one.
As Liberals, we do not support bulk water exports. We do not support the commoditization of bulk water. Personally, as a long-time Georgian Bayer who has been very involved in water issues, I will stand up proudly and say that. That has not changed. I would say that the fact that nothing has changed is almost to the point.
There was a motion in the House in 2007. If at this point this committee decides it needs to do another motion and needs to revisit the same topic, then it is taking away from the responsibility of the government to do its job based on the 2007 motion. I would suggest that going down this path almost takes away the responsibility of the government to do its job the first time around, and takes away from the value of the 2007 report.
As much as I appreciate the value of this, and as much as we are very concerned about water exports, our position is that we are not supporting this motion for those reasons.