Mr. Chair, we on this side do believe that climate change is an important issue. We do believe global warming is an important issue. We are the first government in Canadian history to reduce greenhouse emissions. We do not often get credit from the opposition for doing this.
However, on a day when hundreds of thousands, probably millions, are still in need in the Philippines, as in hungry, we need to be focusing on their needs. That is why we are on the island of Panay. That is why we went to Iloilo. That is why we are in that province and the province of Capiz.
We are there at the request of the Filipino government. We were congratulated on Monday in Toronto by the same consul general that the member mentioned when the Prime Minister had his meeting with the community at one of their most important churches in the greater Toronto area, Our Lady of the Assumption.
We have gone, again, as is typical for Canada, to a part of a country affected by a disaster where no one else was able to go. Tacloban was on television early on. It got a lot of response. The north part of Panay is very bad. We are proud to be there with our logistics, with our impressive footprint, dealing with equally dire needs.
As the member knows, the typhoon went from east to west across the middle of the Philippines, from Eastern Visayas to Western Visayas. Three big islands were in its path: Leyte, where Tacloban is; Cebu, in the middle, where we have a visa application centre and where we are giving additional access for people who may need that expedited priority processing; and Panay, a very big island, with the city of Roxas in the north, which is not in good shape.