Mr. Speaker, I think this is the first time I have spoken when you have sat in the chair, so my congratulations on your appointment.
I want to also congratulate the member for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock on his maiden speech. I thought it was a very good one. I remember my maiden speech was many years ago, but I do not think I was as comfortable and obviously as relaxed as the member appeared to be. That maybe comes with a long association with the political process. It certainly demonstrates itself.
The throne speech response is one that I had a little difficulty formulating from the standpoint that there was not a whole bunch in the throne speech. I think we were all expecting there would be, simply because we had been through an election. We had a throne speech something like five months earlier. Therefore, we have had two throne speeches in a very short period of time from the same administration.
What I observed was observed by many. I called it an empty vessel. Here was a throne speech that could have delivered so much but delivered very little. The most surprising part about all of this is we have a new scenario. We have a minority government in this place. Three opposition parties were waiting to be consulted by the government on what some of the priorities might be and it simply did not happen. To say it happened, even to a small degree, is stretching it because it did not happen. That means the opposition moved amendments. It means we had what the media described as a potential crisis in the making, which was not the intent of the opposition. We actually ended up with more substance in a series of amendments to the throne speech than we had in the throne speech.
It is important that Canadians recognize the significance of all of this. We are at the front end of a Parliament. We were at the point where we had a government that was used to governing from a majority position that suddenly tried to use its old methodology, which was to declare that this would be a confidence motion. The fate of the government hinged upon supporting the government and defeating these amendments.
Guess what? Four hours later the government was negotiating. We now have a different hue and character to this place as a consequence. This is productive. However, the government still appears to be directionless except when it is dragged kicking and screaming, and that is the shame of it all.
The amendments to the throne speech, which have been adopted, are generally supported by the Canadian population and by all the opposition parties. We now understand that the Liberal Party supports them as well because it supported the amendment. Why there was no reference to any of this in the throne speech is beyond us. There was no content in the throne speech.
It is important for me to talk about my riding, just for a minute. My riding is the north half of Vancouver Island. It is also the adjacent mainland coast from Desolation Sound up to Rivers Inlet. Basically, I have about half of the British Columbia coastline in all its different configurations within my riding. I have a lot of marine issues.
We have a very big resource sector. It is a very scenic area with a big tourism sector and it is a very nice place to live. We have a big retirement sector and an economy that is diversifying itself quite a bit.
The face of the federal government on the west coast is not very evident. When it is evident, so very often decisions are made that are contrary to the wishes of the people. We have example after example of this.
Usually it emanates from either the Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans which is the same thing, or more recently the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. It can manifest itself in trade disputes, as in other parts of Canada with softwood lumber.
We have a very difficult time making the centralized governance of this country, the centralized bureaucracy, and even the regional bureaucracy in British Columbia sensitive to what they are doing to our communities through some of their actions, particularly when they have negative consequences.
There are some priority areas including our salmon enhancement programs. We need to maintain them. There is also the issue of light stations. It is a real litmus test for the government. If it is not going to support those, then it does not care about rural coastal British Columbia. It is plain and simple. It is doing everything it can now to signal that it does not care about that.
We have a lot of energy issues, as do other parts of the country. The west coast is blessed with some of the best wind regimes in the world. We are going to have a major wind farm in my riding that will probably add 150 wind turbines in one location. This will change the energy economics of Vancouver Island considerably. That is just a start.
We have an offshore oil and gas resource in British Columbia, upon which there is a federal moratorium, a moratorium it would not place on any other part of Canada, but we have one in British Columbia. We are expecting the Priddle report and the Brooks report later this month. When those come out, I do not want the government to drag its feet in terms of addressing the moratorium issue. There was no reference to any of that in the throne speech.
We have an east coast offshore oil and gas issue right now where the government is to deliver within one week the mechanism by which it is going to meet its election promise. It will return 100% of offshore resource revenue to the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia. We have no reference to that in the throne speech.
We have a major initiative by the government bureaucracy, from the Privy Council, on smart regulations that would do ever so much to assist the entire exercise of statutory and regulatory authority, to increase productivity and to increase the economy of Canada, and to get rid of a lot of the frustrations within industry. There was one small reference to that in the throne speech and that is it.
These are all things that need to be built on in a major way and we do not hear the government talking about it or addressing it.