Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her speech and, to reiterate what my colleague from Barrie—Innisfill said, to honour her sons as well. I thank her for bringing their voices here and for the service they do for all Canadians.
The member talked about the sacred covenant. She talked about my colleague's bill, which we voted for and the government voted against yesterday. This was not just his bill. It was a promise the current government made in the last election, which was to recognize the sacred covenant to veterans. It has failed to do that. The government has asked my colleague to justify it. However, it was a promise it made. It is the government that needs to explain why it failed to deliver that.
Right now we know that the government made several promises in the last campaign. They made promises to increase benefits to veterans. Those benefits are far short of what those veterans expected. We have veterans outside right now, lined up next to the $8 million temporary hockey rink in front of Parliament Hill, to raise awareness about what it is like to be left out in the cold with respect to their benefits and how they are being treated. At the same time, we are debating a motion that is calling for the Prime Minister to apologize to veterans, because he said that he cannot afford to give veterans what he promised them. It would be good today if the Prime Minister went outside and apologized to those veterans. It would save us a lot of time. Maybe the member could speak to that.