Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Elk Island finished stating not very many backbenchers have the opportunity to speak for 40 minutes on any bill. That is a very pithy comment.
Many people would have a great deal of difficulty trying to figure how one could speak for 40 minutes on Bill C-82, which is a major struggle. How on earth does one go about speaking for 40 minutes on a debate on the introduction of a $2 coin?
A few minutes ago I was told we need to keep this debate going for another 10 minutes and do I have something to say about this. I thought sure. The automatic response was who needs a $2 coin? I have travelled extensively in the United States and I have never seen a $2 bill. Why replace the $2 bill? If we do
not want to have it, we should get rid of it. If we do not need it, we do not need it.
That is a question that will be answered in committee where wiser minds than mine will be debating this important consideration of the day. With a $2 coin if we start trying to figure out how much our country will be in debt on a daily basis, it would only be $60 million $2 coins rather than 120 million loonies. We could divide it that way and perhaps it does not seem that much.
There are some really important considerations in this bill. For those watching this debate, the country is into debt at $120 million a day. We have Bill C-68, the firearms bill. We have looming on the horizon the most important question facing our country outside of the debt, our relationship with Quebec and how we will deal with and get past this hurdle. We will get past it and it is my desire we will do it together. Here we are using up the potential of five hours of debating time to talk about the introduction of a $2 coin. We already have a $1 coin.
Some hon. members opposite said we are wasting our time. How can we argue with that? Some things do not require the same amount of consideration except if one happens to be in the vending machine business. Everything we do in the House affects someone somewhere. While it may not affect all of us to the same degree all the time, it affects someone substantially some of the time.
If I were in the vending machine business now and a member of Parliament asked what I thought of the debate on the $2 coin, I would say it could very well be the difference between my staying in business or going out of business. Think of the huge cost to the vending machine business with the introduction of the loonie a few years ago. It important we in the House have some consideration of the effects of what we do on others outside the House.
We all recall what happened with the introduction of the loonie. What happened to the cost of newspapers from vending machines? By and large there was an increase from $75 cents to a loonie. The vending industry raised prices from 25 cents to 50 cents to 75 cents to a loonie. It was not taking advantage of a situation. If it has to make mechanical changes it might as well make them to last.
What will happen if we introduce a doubloonie, a $2 coin? A vast number of ideas have come forward about what to call the new coin. Ideas came from the west saying we should put a picture of a deer on either side and call it the two buck coin. Another member said we could put a picture of the leader of the Reform Party on one side, the Leader of the Opposition on the other and say flip a coin.
There is a substantial cost, particularly to the vending machine business. As we make decisions and changes for the nation, things that seem pretty simple and straightforward very often have a result that extends far beyond what we are doing here.
I have two $2 bills in my pocket and a loonie. One thing brought to my attention the other day was if we get rid of the $2 bill, what will happen to the amount of change we carry in our pockets. I have a loonie and some quarters. I am trying to stretch this out. I suppose we are looking at effects this will have down the road, beyond the vending machine industry and beyond inflation. I suppose to some people the amount of coins they would have to carry in their pocket would be something of a consideration. Without a $2 bill and because we do not have a $1 bill, we would have to carry around a whole lot more loonies or doubloonies.