Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for all his hard work on this issue. We support the bill, as he mentioned.
I want to get back to an issue I spoke about before. The bill will only be good if the RCMP force is inspired and the morale is good. Right now the morale in the RCMP is very poor. The officers across the country work extremely hard and they work overtime. In my community in Sooke on the West Shore of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, RCMP officers are well overstretched in the jobs they do.
One thing that has demoralized them is the broken promise that took place in December when the RCMP's wage agreement was torn up by the government, even though the Prime Minister had announced publicly that his government would honour it. We know this will negatively affect our ability to attract and retain RCMP officers, contrary to what the parliamentary secretary said.
Does my hon. colleague not think the government should do the right thing, go back and honour the wage agreement that the Prime Minister promised the RCMP last year? In doing so, that would help us retain members in our force and attract new members to what is clearly one of the best police forces in the world.