The member says it is completely devalued.
At what point in time do we decide that we are going to protect species at risk? The laws of the land are evolutionary. It takes into account important aspects.
There was never this idea, as was presented by the member I think very erroneously, that somehow all the land would be expropriated without compensation. That is absolute nonsense.
The final point I wanted to raise has to do with the court challenges program. The member's motion is suggesting that we want to enshrine something else in the charter. I think this is a good debate.
It is not a good debate when the starting point is that there is no guaranteed accessibility for all Canadians to the charter. If more things are put in, but the court challenges program is destroyed, how does that help? How does that help all Canadians?
The issue is that the government has abolished the court challenges program. That program was put in there to make sure that all the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms were accessible to all Canadians. If a person did not have the money to challenge a decision, whether it came from a municipal, provincial or a federal jurisdiction, the Federal Court, that individual would be able to defend his or her charter rights.
This costs money. Some people cannot do it. The members are suggesting and they have suggested on the public record that these are just a bunch of special interest groups. It really is sad when we look at something like the Montfort Hospital. This is a bilingual hospital that was trying to survive and is still there today because of the court challenges program.
I raise it because if we want to enshrine more things into the charter, then obviously accessibility is an important part. That is what is missing in this debate.