Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise in the House today to discuss the concern that is on the minds of every Canadian when it comes to safety on our roads and highways.
Before I start my preamble today, I would like to give a warm welcome to all those veterans and legion members who descended upon Halifax for the 38th Dominion convention. They had a wonderful parade on Sunday in the pouring rain. It was great to see Haligonians come out in pride to say thank you to the veterans and to the legion members for the continuing great work they do on behalf of our elderly veterans across the country. We are going to give a special tip of the salt and pepper cap to all those people across the country.
Also, I am wearing my tall ships pin today. I invite all members of parliament, their staff, anyone in the viewing audience and in Ottawa to come on down to Halifax between July 19 and 24 to witness the greatest gathering of tall ships in the history of our country, a great mariner nation.
Back to the subject at hand, when it comes to impaired driving, I do not think there is one Canadian or one parliamentarian who would not agree that this is something that we should not even be discussing in the new millennium. Impaired driving is a scourge and a curse in our society. Through proper education and enforcement hopefully we can reduce it or eradicate it completely. However, it does absolutely no good to put in all the toughest regulations possible if there is not proper enforcement.
Many communities in my riding never see a police officer for days. I am sure it is the same right across the country in the rural parts of the nation. The cuts to the RCMP and to provincial and municipal police forces have really put our roads in jeopardy not only in terms of impaired drivers but unsafe drivers right across the country.
If we are going to eradicate this problem and save lives, we must encourage the federal government and all provincial governments to reinvest in our law enforcement officers so they can have not only the proper safety checks on the road, roadblocks and everything else at New Year's and on special holidays but throughout the year. Spot checks are a great way of deterring the general public from drinking and driving.
Another problem is the lack of public transportation. There is absolutely no excuse for someone to drink and drive. Absolutely no excuse at all. In many cases an individual may have a bit too much to drink and because there is no access to public transportation, or quick access to it, that may encourage the individual, albeit not rightly of course, to think that because they cannot get a ride home and a cab is too expensive they will chance it and drive. We have to take that type of thinking away from the people who patron our taverns, bars and lounges, or who drink in their homes or their neighbours' homes. We have to encourage them to use public transportation or hire a cab if they are going to have a few drinks.
I have to give credit to the Brewers' Association of Canada. Over the last few years it has been very proactive in encouraging its customers who drink spirits, wines and beers to drink responsibly. Kudos go to that association for taking the lead approach in that regard, but there is much more it could do. It could start by putting voluntary labelling on bottles. Or, if it refuses to do that voluntarily, it could become mandatory that labelling be put on beer bottles, liquor bottles and so on to encourage people not to drink and drive. That is my personal point of view.
We have quite graphic advertising planned for cigarettes and I believe we should have the same on liquor bottles. I do not necessarily mean pictures, but a warning saying “Please do not drink and drive”. That would go a long way in encouraging people to understand that when they drink, getting into a vehicle is the worst thing they could possibly do.
MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is a wonderful association which reaches across this country. It deserves all kinds of kudos. I would go so far as to say that the individuals involved with MADD deserve the Order of Canada for all the great work they do in bringing this issue to the attention of all members of parliament and all legislatures across Canada. This organization brings awareness to this very terrible aspect of our society.
Statistically it is true that impaired driving charges have decreased through proper education and through efforts of organizations like MADD and the Brewers' Association of Canada. Those organizations encourage and educate all people in our society to not drink and drive. However, it still happens and there are many more things we could do.
Our enforcement people need adequate resources. We have heard enough excuses about budgetary cuts. If someone dies because of budgetary cuts, why the hell were those cuts made in the first place? There is a cause and effect to budgetary restraints and cuts. I am not saying we should operate on deficits for the sake of operating on deficits, but if essential services like policing are cut in Canada that will have an effect on road safety. We have many concerns about home invasion in rural communities. We also have problems with carjackings, drugs coming into Canada through our ports, poor morale in the RCMP and the municipal and provincial police forces, which are a direct cause of the cuts these departments have had to face.
All of the police officers I have met love to do what they do. They love to serve their country in their capacity as law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, the support they receive from the federal and provincial governments is not adequate. That has to change. I believe if we can change the thinking of all governments at all levels and work co-operatively together with law enforcement agencies we could reduce drunk driving. It is difficult to control 31 million people and their individual behaviour, but we could reduce drinking and driving even more.
It is most unfortunate that the member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley was unable to get unanimous consent to have this legislation passed quickly. As the House knows, we will be rising possibly this Friday or next week. I would encourage this government and all members of parliament to put aside their political differences and move to quickly pass this bill. It would be the right thing to do. We must do everything we can to protect our children, our families and anybody visiting Canada who travels on our highways and byways, regardless of which political party we belong to.
I encourage all members of parliament to support this initiative and to do it quickly so that we can protect lives on our streets in Canada.