Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-4 on the international space station.
Like my colleagues, I too will certainly make reference to the bill that was closed down very deliberately by the Liberal government. Debate was stifled on the Nisga'a agreement. I do not know what the reason was, apart from the fact that the Liberal government did not want a sound debate on that bill. The Liberals did not want Canadians to hear the true contents of that bill and its ramifications throughout the province of B.C. in particular, and for all Canadians.
The Nisga'a agreement bill impacts not only the province of British Columbia, but right across the country. Its potential in land claim settlements is quite phenomenal.
Back to the space station. I had the privilege of walking through the model of the space station outside of Houston, Texas. It was housed in a very large building as one can imagine. It is several hundred feet long and several hundred feet wide. I had the opportunity for a hands-on examination of the station. It was very, very impressive.
When we think about the beginnings of the space program in the United States of America, the roots were very much associated with Canada. I recall the scrapping of the Avro Arrow project in Canada. Some phenomenal engineering and technological achievements ended up south of the border. Unfortunately right now we do not possess the same qualities of research and support on a government level as we did back then. When we look at the history of NASA, the space race and the space industry, it very much has its roots here in Canada.
There are still many Canadian hands-on personnel down there. It just so happened that when I was down there, a number of Canadian scientists and engineers were working on different processes in reference to the robotic arm, the technology which was developed here in Canada. I saw how that arm is going to work on the space station. It is quite amazing. That arm can move like a giant spider from one end of the space station and attach itself to the other end. It can perform significant maintenance and construction feats.
A member of my family works on the medical team in NASA, Dr. Douglas Hamilton. He is known as Hammy down there. Dr. Hamilton has two degrees in engineering and a medical degree. Unfortunately he is part of the brain drain out of Canada. He was educated and received his degrees in Calgary. After he earned his medical degree he was looking around for a job and lo and behold, NASA snapped him up.
There is another one of Hammy's credentials which should be mentioned. He was in line to be an astronaut and was picked as one of the Canadian astronauts for the future. He was one of the five that was slated to go. Unfortunately it never happened. The race slowed down and a number of Canadians did not have the opportunity but he knows many of this country's present astronauts.
I was looking at a diagram of the space station. As I was walking through the station I had a good opportunity to look inside each capsule that will be made by various countries. There is no question about the importance of this space station and Canada's involvement in it.
There will be Canadians not so much in the station when it is up there but there certainly will be a lot of them on the ground. Canada's role in the station is going to be vital and ultra important. It will provide spin-off jobs in Canada as Canada contributes more and more toward that endeavour.
I walked through all of the modules. There is a co-operative effort on the part of these countries. Some of them were at odds with one another. Russia was at odds with the United States and the free world. Japan at one time was at odds with Europe and certainly North America. The United Kingdom and Europe are contributing to this effort with a substantial amount of co-operation.
I was impressed that it is a Russian escape module, if there are problems in the station itself, that will allow those inside the capsules to exit safely hopefully back to Earth should some major problem occur. Co-operation was the key to this whole affair.
Ties are being built through efforts like the space station. Bonds are being built among the scientific community and among those in the diplomatic areas of governments. Some barriers are falling down which is so vital to world peace.
I look to our own country and I see other things happening which reflect the opposite. I am coming back now to another comparison, when we talk about co-operation and what can actually be accomplished when matters come before the House that are divisive to our country and its people.
I speak of the Nisga'a agreement. Many people in the country would like to know the truth of the matter when it comes to that agreement. They are not being allowed to do that. They are being denied a debate here in parliament on that very issue.
The government chose to invoke time allocation after four hours and 12 minutes of debate. In so doing—