Madam Speaker, I listened very carefully to the comments made by the members who spoke. I sincerely thank all members who took the time to prepare their speeches to support this bill, because I know that those who support this bill must have taken the time to read it very thoroughly.
I also thank those who have taken the time to oppose this bill because they have actually spent some time on it. But I would urge them to look carefully at it. Then they will probably support it.
There were some pretty good ideas from those who opposed the bill. I am very flexible. I am flexible enough to accommodate some reasonably good ideas. Therefore, I urge members to allow this bill to go to committee where we can look at those good ideas to make this and even better bill.
I originally said that my intention was to make this a non-partisan bill. I did not bash Liberals at any time, which I could have done very easily. But one thing I would like to point out is that on the government side of the House the well is completely dry. As far as talking about benefits for Canadians or values for Canadians, the well is completely dry.
Unfortunately, members on the government side have no vision. Some of them have a blurred vision. They put on glasses, and the glasses they look through have the lens of political stripe. They only have one type of glasses.
Some members have another problem. They have something obstructing their vision. They have blurred vision. They have a cataract. The cataract is that they do not know what the problem is. Let me tell them what their problem is. They do not know that they do not know. That is the problem with them. There is an old saying that goes, he who knows not and knows not that he knows not can never learn. That is their problem.
On the other hand, they have a long hierarchy list that says how not to do the right thing, which they follow.
The hon. member from the government side said that discussions had taken place. After their discussion they will forget what their discussion was and then their discussion will start again. This process will continue until they reach a point where there is no action taken.
The minister set up a toll free number. Why did he set up a toll free number for victims to expose those who gouge prices during emergencies? He had a reason. He wanted to give them sugar coated medicine. He just wanted to console them.
There is another problem in relation to what I said earlier. I was misquoted two times by my Progressive Conservative colleague. He who knows not but knows that he knows not can learn. That is the problem with them. I do not want to go into the details. The hon. parliamentary secretary said there is little evidence of price gouging although he confessed there has been price gouging.
There are tons of media reports. I have 25 media reports that state there is a problem. The Better Business Bureau is supporting this bill. So many organizations are supporting it. Insurance companies will not insure businesses or individuals who will be affected by Y2K computer problems. Insurance companies refuse to cover them if there is damage resulting from a computer problem.
We on this side of the House do not want to interfere with competition, we do not want to interfere with the free market but we do want to fire a warning shot that prevention is better than cure. We know the value of the shade of a tree when the tree is not there.
The hon. members should have looked into the details of the bill and they should have supported this bill. I would like the unanimous consent of the House for the subject matter of this bill to be referred to the Standing Committee on Industry so we can look into this and take some effective action for our constituents and for all Canadians.