Mr. Speaker, like others I was not totally prepared to speak to this excellent private member's motion. However, having listened to the debate I felt I had to rise to address it at least in some small way.
As my colleague in the Canadian Alliance has said, we cannot help but remind all other parties in the House, as we work through private members' business in these dying days of the opening session of parliament, of the need to make all motions and bills votable. It is high time to move toward that.
As the member for Elk Island indicated, regardless of what party members represent, when they go to the trouble and effort to draft motions or bills and bring them before the House, it is incumbent upon all of us to participate in the debates; to listen very carefully to the points being made, either for or against; and ultimately to have the process culminate in a vote. As happened in the case of a couple of my private members' bills, to have some of them non-votable is a huge disservice to the whole democratic process to which we have all talked about adhering.
Like my colleague in the Progressive Conservatives, I was appalled at the remarks of the member for Sault Ste. Marie in his role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs. He stood in his place and criticized the motion before us by questioning who should be honoured and who should pay.
We have recently gone through a process in this place whereby the government in its infinite wisdom rammed through pay and pension benefits for its own members in a very quick fashion. It seems ludicrous to me in the extreme that the government can look at a motion like this one which would honour people who certainly warrant the highest honours bestowed upon them, shrug its shoulders and say it is easier said than done.
The government certainly did not adopt that attitude when it came to its pay raises. It was very quick to ensure it was pushed through the House as quickly as possible regardless of whether members were for it or against it. It did a disservice to the issue and to parliament. It left an impression with the electorate, with Canadians in the real world outside the Ottawa bubble, that somehow there were members who were ashamed of the process so it had to be fast tracked.
Regarding the question of who should be honoured, we should bestow the honour upon all women who participated in the war effort, regardless of whether they worked in the fields or in the factories; whether they went overseas; whether, as was indicated by a number of members, they were involved in the nursing profession; whether they drove a lorry; or whether they were a chauffeur for a general. Regardless of what role they played or whether they supported the families left behind, all women who were involved in the years our country was at war deserve to be recognized and honoured.
The very point the parliamentary secretary was trying to make about this somehow being divisive and questioning who should be honoured was ridiculous.
Who would pay? It is a bit early in the process to say who would pay. It could be a joint private-public enterprise as we have seen many times before. Which level of government does not have to be spelled out or that we want to exclude organizations from involvement. Special committees might spring up across the country.
As my colleague from Elk Island said, many cenotaphs, statues and other ways of honouring people in society who have done great deeds in the past have been financed either at the local level or through a truly national initiative.
It is a bit of a red herring for the parliamentary secretary, in representing the government, to say we should do nothing because we have not got down to the basic about who will pay. That does not do any service and does not reflect well on our institution and on members of parliament to adopt that attitude.
In summary, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the motion. I commend my colleague from the New Democratic Party for bringing it forward. I believe very strongly that all Canadians, regardless of gender, involved in the war effort protected the rights all of us enjoy today: the right to speak openly and to represent all different political stripes and parties in the Parliament of Canada. These rights were protected by the people who we wish to honour.
We honour and recognize them today if only by our words. I hope the motion will not die and that there are ways in which we can keep it alive and move it forward to proper recognition of women who contributed so much during those very difficult years.