Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a privilege for me to also enter into this debate this evening. I have had a special interest in this topic since I was first elected 14 years ago.
Since 1983, property rights bills and motions have been debated in the House 10 times. Five of those bills and motions were ones that I have introduced over the past 14 years. That just indicates the interest that I have had in this as well as the importance of the debate.
I will not let go of this debate until it is resolved in the affirmative. That is why I appreciate that the member for Niagara West—Glanbrook again has given us an opportunity to engage in this very important debate.
I only have three minutes to speak, which is why I cannot deliver my speech, so I am going to comment on some of the objections that have been raised.
One of those objections is that property rights cannot work in Canada. Some have made it appear as if this is not anything that can be accommodated by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that it would not work with our present political system. However, we are the only modern industrialized country that does not have property rights. How can one argue that they do not work if they work in every other modern industrialized country?
I would like to also point out that a couple of years ago even China saw the importance of this and China is a communist country. It saw the importance of property rights, but we in Canada still have not realized, at least not in this chamber, that this is a very important right.
Some have argued that it is all a matter of conflicting rights, but it flows out of the very fact that we have a right to life. If we follow that up, which I cannot do in two minutes, it follows that we have the right to our labour and the fruits of our labour and no one has the right deprive us of that. Those who want to argue against this would have a very hard time making a solid argument that it conflicts with our human rights, because it does not. I think that needs to be emphasized over and over.
One member argued that this is a right of the provincial government, that this is a responsibility according to our Constitution that follows from the way our Constitution--