Mr. Speaker, I believe there has been an agreement that we would ease the passage of this legislation. I will keep my comments brief as there are a few of my colleagues who wish to make some comments.
As we approach this Christmas holiday season we are all bracing for the carnage that normally appears on the roads due to impaired driving. Any message that parliament can send to the Canadian public, and this bill is one, that we intend to get serious about the whole issue of impaired driving will be well received. I wish it could have happened a bit sooner, but it is better late than never.
When the drinking and driving legislation was being reviewed in the last parliament the then Reform Party, now the Canadian Alliance, was supportive of the whole notion of interlock devices on ignitions. I commend my colleague from Prince George--Bulkley Valley for all the work that he did on impaired driving over the last couple of parliaments.
I am sure all members have recently been contacted by MADD. It has a very active campaign right now to reduce the blood level alcohol content from .08 to .05. Let me assure the government that we will be working together with MADD to bring that about. It is something that we think has to be addressed.
Some of the other problems that we saw in the previous parliament were complaints from police and prosecutors that there were many procedural problems and many hurdles to be overcome before we had what most people would consider to be effective impaired driving legislation. This legislation would add to the many improvements we made in the last parliament. It is a good step but there is still much work to do.
I encourage all the folks listening today to please have a safe holiday season. If people are going to drink, I ask them not to get behind the wheel.