Mr. Speaker, Parliament would not be able to function without the contribution of essential employees such as those who protect visitors' and MPs' safety on Parliament Hill, those who prepare and serve meals and those who help House debates run smoothly.
I also want to mention the important role that the House of Commons pages play. Yesterday, at the height of an evening filled with emotion and excitement, the pages came back from a 4 to 1 deficit in the last seven minutes of our 17th annual pages versus MPs soccer match to win in a shootout.
MPs from all parties joined forces to defeat the formidable team of pages, but they were too strong for us.
Canadians deserve better. They deserve a team of better-trained MPs who can win the match against the pages. In the meantime, our hats are off to them. We congratulate them and thank them for their excellent work. Thank you, pages.