Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure today that I rise to begin third reading of Bill C-4, the civil international space station agreement implementation act.
As my colleagues in the House will recall from the second reading debate, the international space station is the world's most ambitious civil undertaking in the area of science and technology. Canada is honoured and privileged to have played a very crucial and central role in this program.
Over 40 flights of the U.S. space shuttle will be required to loft this impressive outpost of humanity into orbit. Canada has already embarked on this exciting adventure.
CSA astronaut Julie Payette flew to the space station in May of this year. Next year, CSA astronauts Marc Garneau and Chris Hadfield are scheduled to participate in missions to the space station, ultimately delivering Canada's principle contribution: the mobile servicing system, Canada's next generation, state of the art space robot.
A project of such scope and grandeur required the definition of a very elaborate management regime, negotiated over several years and laid out in detail in the international agreement. This multilateral treaty brings together 15 participating nations in a truly global space station partnership.
In short, Bill C-4 implements our commitments under the international agreement by bringing Canadian legislation in line with that agreement. Let me point out that much of this text can be implemented directly without changes to the existing law. In other areas changes were clearly necessary.
First, and most importantly, Bill C-4 extends the application of Canada's criminal code to the Canadians onboard the space station and, in exceptional circumstances, to foreign nationals as well. This is similar in principle to the other extraterritorial applications of the criminal code, for example on high-sea oil drilling platforms.
Clearly, however, there is something new and exciting about extending the application of the Canada law beyond the immediate borders of our planet. As the space station partners defined the legal regime of the first truly international, collaborative, crewed space vehicle, Canada was at the very heart of those discussions. Through Bill C-4, Canada will enact into law the principles it helped define.
The bill also ensures, for example, that Canadian law applies to Canadians travelling to and from the space station, rather than the law of the carrying countries.
Bill C-4 also ensures that information essential to meeting our space station commitments is available to the Canadian government and that any information provided to meet those commitments is used exclusively for that and only that purpose.
My colleagues will also recall that during second reading in the House, every party spoke strongly in favour of this outstanding project and Canada's unique role, of course. During our committee sessions, we were able to move quickly and, let me say, competently through the bill.
I must take a moment now to thank my colleagues from both sides of the House, in particular the members of the Standing Committee on Industry, for their strong support behind the passage of the legislation. The members of the committee co-operated efficiently and while taking an earnest interest in the bill and the ISS program did not delay its passage.
One amendment was proposed by the committee to section 10 of the bill, an amendment which would ensure that any amendments to the intergovernmental agreement would be laid before parliament so that we are made aware of the evolving nature of Canada's ISS related commitments.
Although technical in nature, this implementing legislation is a crucial step on the path toward the ratification of the intergovernmental agreement. Canada made a clear commitment to the space station when it signed the agreement in January 1998. Ratification will clear the path for Canada and ultimately for all space station partners and open a new era of space exploration: the operation and utilization of the world's largest permanently inhabited laboratory station.
It is with great pride, Mr. Speaker, that I ask you today to help bring this remarkable project to a close and make it indeed a reality.