Mr. Speaker, Senator Elaine McCoy from Alberta is not the only Albertan who thinks this measure is a misplaced one. In fact, Ted Morton, the finance minister, is certainly attacking the government for this very thing. On June 1, in the Calgary Herald, he said:
—exactly what is Ottawa trying to fix that hasn't already been addressed by, or couldn't be fixed within, the current passport system?
He indicates that the criticisms of others have been others have been resolved through 10 years of harmonization efforts to create the passport system. He said:
It is a system that works well both on a local and a national level. Internationally, Canada's passport system is recognized as among the best in the world, with the OECD and the World Bank Group rating it ahead of both the United States and the United Kingdom. And two years in a row the Milken Institute ranked Canada...as having the "best access to capital”.
It seems to me that the Conservative finance minister, the parliamentary assistant and Mr. Morton are in two different spaces. They have two diametrically opposed views of what is going on.
What are the members comments regarding the opposition from Alberta to this measure?