Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House of Commons to speak on behalf of the great people of southwest and west central Saskatchewan.
I want to commend my colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola on this fantastic bill. It is our job as members of Parliament to take issues from our local communities and find ways to advocate for or work on them to make a better Canada. I firmly believe the member has done a great job with this bill. Unfortunately, it takes yet another tragic story for this bill to become reality.
When I was first elected in 2019, one of the first meetings I had in my office was with a group of women who wanted to talk to me about domestic violence. Saskatchewan, unfortunately, still carries the mantle for the highest rate of intimate partner violence per capita in Canada, and that number continues to be on the rise. In fact, if we go back to 2018, before I was even elected, there were 489 people per 100,000 who were impacted by intimate partner violence. That number is now almost 800 people per 100,000 in the province of Saskatchewan who are dealing with domestic violence. This is definitely a big issue in Saskatchewan and something I take very seriously.
One of the ladies who came to my office had lost, I think, her twin sister, who had been murdered by an intimate partner. They wanted to talk to me about what could be done about intimate partner violence. At that particular point in time, the issue they brought up and we worked closely on was a provision called Clare's Law, which was the disclosure of a person's history of domestic violence. We were able to do some work on that and, ultimately, get the RCMP to find a way to comply with Clare's Law, so that way Saskatchewan could become the first province to fully benefit from Clare's Law. We are here today to talk about a different law, though, which would be yet another great tool that could and should be used to deal with the scourge that is domestic violence.
We have heard the story of Bailey McCourt today. Multiple people have shared it. It is extremely tragic. When I read these tragic stories, I think about my two daughters and my wife, and what the tone is of what we are trying to accomplish in this place. I came to this place because I wanted to be able to make a better future, not just for my kids but for the next generation of Canadians. When we can learn from tragedy and the failures of the system and better protect people going forward, those are steps that we as parliamentarians must take.
With my final few seconds, I want to again acknowledge the great work by my colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, for putting forward this tremendous bill, and recognize the great speeches by my colleagues in the House today. I would acknowledge the family who is in attendance as well.