Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the parliamentary secretary for sharing his experience. My heart goes out to him. As I said, I myself went through a similar experience with a friend, and to make matters worse, the way I found out was by seeing it on the news.
The first thing we could do, following the decision that will be made in this House by all the members, would be to set an example. When I was mayor, I chose not to wait to be asked. I used the power at my disposal to persuade other elected officials to provide the necessary funding.
Since this is a motion, I do not have the financial power to do that in this case. I think that if we move in this direction, we will be sending a positive sign.
If we all wanted to, we could set an example with the RCMP and educate all levels of government, after the committee conducts its study. I do not want to step on the toes of other jurisdictions.
However, by conducting that study and putting in the work, we may learn about suitable programs, as it happened in the past with the installation of AEDs in arenas.
I should mention that many municipalities have first responder training programs. People expect AEDs to come in an ambulance, because they almost all have one. However, sometimes the first unit to arrive at the scene of an accident is a police car, or even a fire truck, if it is closer.
The simple answer to the question is that it is the leadership of this Parliament, by which I mean Parliament as a whole, not just the government, that will make it possible for us to set an example.