Mr. Speaker, I first want to acknowledge that we are gathered on the unceded traditional territories of the Algonquin nation.
I also want to take a moment, as Remembrance Day has just passed, to acknowledge the veterans and thank them for the democracy and freedom we are able to exercise today.
I am also very honoured to be in this chamber again. I hope that it is not lost on the returning members what an incredible honour it is to be in this room, to be in this chamber, to represent the people of their constituencies. I welcome them back. I congratulate the returning members and the newly elected members.
I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge our newly elected members who represent a really special part of our movement and our party: the member for Nunavut, the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith, the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam as well as the member for Edmonton Griesbach. I want to congratulate all the candidates who put their name forward and thank them for doing that, which is, of course, difficult to do.
I want to take a moment to particularly acknowledge the member for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing. I look forward to her returning to her duties as Assistant Deputy Speaker.
Now that we have elected a Speaker of the House, we want to get back to work. We have our work cut out for us. We all know that a number of crises, such as the climate crisis and the housing crisis, are taking a heavy toll across the country. We must act.
I am looking forward, now that we have a newly elected returning Speaker, to getting back to work, to work on things on which Canadians need us to work. The climate crisis is hitting hard, and we have seen the impacts throughout this year. Particularly right now in B.C., my province, we are seeing a devastating impact of this climate crisis. My heart goes out to the communities that are hardest hit. We know we need to act.
I call on everyone in the House to come together to find solutions to reduce emissions, to create good jobs and to invest in the infrastructure. For communities that are hard hit by climate crises, by extreme weather that is becoming more and more common, we need to ensure they have the infrastructure to be more resilient, and we need to prevent the disasters we have seen from happening again.
We also want to ensure that people who are struggling get the help they need. There are certain clawbacks they are facing right now which make their lives worse than before the pandemic. That cannot be allowed to continue.
As we have always said, we are ready to work together. We are keen to find ways to work together. One thing remains clear, however: we will never stop fighting for Canadians, fighting to help them improve their quality of life.
That is exactly what we are going to do.