Madam Speaker, first, let me congratulate you on your appointment.
Second, I would like to inform you that I will share my time with the member for Beauce, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.
Permit me to salute and thank my constituents from Brome—Missisquoi for this fourth mandate, for the renewed trust they put in me during this last election. They are certainly proud to have heard the Speech from the Throne delivered to us a few days ago.
Concerning my riding, I will deal with a few issues. Of course, health care is important. The Speech from the Throne talked a lot about it. However, an issue particularly caught my attention in this Speech from the Throne. It is the environmental issue. My riding, concerned a lot about the environment, is facing environmental problems, while, of course, having environmental assets.
Let us start with the negative. There is a problem with the quality of water in Lake Champlain. The government asked the International Joint Commission on Boundary Waters to examine the problems of water quality in Lake Champlain. It did. The commission held hearings this summer and is to meet the local people soon.
As for Lake Memphremagog, everyone has heard about it. In Coventry, Vermont, Americans want to expand a landfill site. Indeed, they want to triple the size of the landfill site. This would be dangerous for our Lake Memphremagog. It should be understood that the people of Magog, Sherbrooke and the whole region drink water from Lake Memphremagog. Thus, the Lake Memphremagog and the Coventry landfill site issues require careful attention.
However, there are also good news. This is an issue on which I worked extensively and which deals with the creation of a reserve at Mount Sutton. This is extraordinary. This is in cooperation with the Quebec government. It is a reserve at Mount Sutton. We have to ensure there is cooperation among the different levels of government to guarantee future generations an abundance of such green spaces in the country.
The Speech from the Throne addressed cooperation at length. What does cooperation mean? It means less bickering. Our friends from the Bloc are not ones to dislike bickering. The Speech from the Throne addresses cooperation at length. Hon. members know that there is always a single taxpayer. He pays at the municipal level; he pays at the provincial level; he pays at the federal level, but it is always the same taxpayer. He asks one thing: that the people he elected agree. In the area of health and municipalities, we saw the desired degree of cooperation, one that works with this government.
In his speech in reply to the Speech from the Throne, the Prime Minister talks about cooperation 11 times.