Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate in this debate and join with my colleague, the member for Windsor—St. Clair, in expressing the support of the New Democratic Party with respect to this motion.
We want to thank the Conservative Party for bringing this matter to the House and we wish to comment on the fact that there seems to be, based on the first couple of hours of debate, considerable support for the motion. That is a good sign. If at the end of the day we can unite around something as fundamental to the health and well-being of Canadians as a safe drinking water supply in our country, then we will have done a great service and we will have fulfilled our responsibility as members of parliament representing a level of government that is required to act on health protection matters.
What I think is so important today is to acknowledge that health protection is a fundamental responsibility of the federal government. It was obviously very disconcerting to hear yesterday from the Minister of Health that in fact standards, laws and guidelines in terms of quality of water are not necessarily the solution.