Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague, the member for North Island—Powell River. She is someone we can really admire for the way she represents her constituents. She has held 28 town halls. Like me, she lives in a rural riding, and it is very difficult to do that in a rural riding, never mind being in one of the most distant ridings in Canada. As she said, it takes her 10 hours to get home, and then she gets on the road.
The government has floated ideas of having us sit more weeks and sit longer. It is really difficult when one lives in a rural riding. I know this because to get to some communities, it takes me 18 hours to get from Ottawa to Vancouver Island, drive across Vancouver Island, and take a boat north for two hours to get to a community like Hesquiah.
I have 10 nations in my riding. She has more. These are small communities, and if we do not get out and meet with these communities, we do not build trust. We do not get to know their issues. We rely on getting to those communities in those weeks when we are in the ridings because we live so far away and it is hard to get there, and if we extend the sitting weeks, it is going to make it more difficult.
Perhaps the member could talk about the importance of making sure that we have time to get to those people in those communities and the importance of Friday questions so that we can ask questions on behalf of those small communities. We would not have that opportunity if the government takes away Friday sittings. We would not be able to ask questions. We are going to get shut down and they are going to get shut down, and their voice is going to be lost.