Mr. Speaker, this is a very important issue and I know the hon. member has said so himself. However, to play politics and to be partisan with it is not worthy of the hon. member or the government.
This is an issue on which the Department of Health tabled a report in 2003. Work had been going on. There was money in CIHR to do research. There was work being done through Indian and Northern Affairs to deal with at risk societies, especially aboriginal people. There were already programs in place. There were in fact lots of programs that were implemented with regard to public awareness.
To suggest that nothing was done and that suddenly within the space of 11 or 12 months the government pulled a rabbit out of a hat is playing politics and playing semantics. The work had started. The Canadian Medical Association had been spending its time developing the kinds of protocols and diagnostic tools about which we were talking, and that took time.
However, what I would like to speak to is the issue of labelling, and this is a very significant issue. I do not know if everyone in the House realizes that distillers, when they send their bottles of alcohol from Canada to California, they put labels on them, but those labels are not there for Canadians.
The hon. member from Mississauga makes a very strong point that this is an issue that we should move toward. We should be labelling because there is no better way of getting the message out than when somebody picks up a bottle to pour a drink and reads that this is going to harm her child.
Most people do not read the posters and brochures. Therefore, I suggest this is a worthwhile cause and he should support it.