Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the hon. member supports the government initiatives in corporate social responsibility. We certainly have come further and more quickly than any government in the history of this country.
Unfortunately, the member has convinced a number of his colleagues that the way his bill is written would benefit corporate social responsibility and enhance it, and nothing is further from the truth.
There is the whole issue when we are looking at corporate social responsibility of extraterritoriality and the ability for Canadians to enforce our laws in foreign jurisdictions. That is simply not appropriate and it is not applicable.
The other assumption that the hon. member's bill makes is that all the NGOs' statements and the negative statements and every press release the member reads about Canada's mining sector, our extractive sector, which is the biggest extractive sector in the world by far, operating in over 100 countries, are true.
I visited a mine in Honduras that the NGO said was not practising good social responsibility and found out from being on the ground there, in a little town called San Andrés, which used to have 1,200 people and now has about 30,000 people because they have come there for jobs and opportunity and to work in the mine, a community that had no doctor, no facilities at all--one could go to the priest after one was dead--now has a hospital that is operated by the mining company there.
We had a former member of Parliament, Alexa McDonough, who never visited the town, never visited the mine, but put a report out condemning them for corporate social responsibility. In fact when one actually visits the place, it was untrue. I cannot put it any clearer than that.
I am extremely aware of corporate social responsibility. We have appointed a councillor for corporate social responsibility. We will put an office in place, probably in Montreal, for corporate social responsibility, where the NGOs and industry alike can meet and find out information about Canadian mining operations abroad.
We will continue to work with all members of the House in a proactive way to ensure and support corporate social responsibility. But let us be clear: the whole issue of extraterritoriality has to be addressed.
One of the members in this member's own party said very clearly that although well intended it was unfortunate that the bill was brought forward because it is misguided.