Mr. Speaker, I first want to congratulate the member for North Okanagan—Shuswap for this piece of legislation. As I listened to the debate tonight, I want to express how profoundly disappointed I am in the response from both the NDP and the Liberal members, who have indicated that they are not going to support this piece of legislation. When I first heard about what he was proposing, and I saw the bill tabled, having gone through the worst fire season in British Columbia, and having lived in the midst of it, I was very excited about what he was looking at doing. There are times in this House where we are very disappointed with what the other parties do and how they respond. Certainly, there is no question that this is one of those times.
We need to put this into a bit of perspective. I will focus predominantly on our volunteer fire departments, our first nations fire departments, who work their hearts out to support communities. They fundraise for their equipment. They train every weekend or one evening a week, then are called to go to very difficult circumstances and can arrive there and find out that someone has stolen their hose or played with their regulator and has put their life in danger.
Just as we recognize that sometimes when things happen in, for example, a church situation there are aggravating circumstances, I would suggest, and I hope I will be able to articulate this more, that this is another example of a very important aggravating situation, and I really wish those parties would reconsider their position.
I look forward to having eight minutes later.