Madam Speaker, I wish to thank the member for Vancouver East for sharing with us some of the great work being done in her riding by non-profit associations.
Halifax is the home of many non-profit associations as well. One, for example, is the Ecology Action Centre, which is Nova Scotia's largest environmental organization. Since 1971 the EAC has been working to build a healthier, more sustainable Nova Scotia, and it is a strong and respected voice in our province on environmental issues.
My question is actually about funding for non-profit organizations. She talked about the regulation of non-profit organizations. One strong program at the EAC was the steer clean program, which was a federal initiative to retire old vehicles which were bad polluters in exchange for sustainable transportation incentives like a free bus pass or discounts on bikes. This innovative program was cancelled last spring, so that means we have lost greenhouse gas reductions in our province, the EAC lost a staff person, and the Ecology Action Centre lost some of its capacity to be a strong voice for sustainable transportation.
I wonder if the hon. member would share with us her thoughts on today's focus of the debate, which is about changes to governance of non-profit organizations as opposed to a real discussion on ensuring that non-profit organizations can continue to do the excellent work that they are doing.