I invite the House to take note that today we are using the wooden mace. This mace is a reminder of the fire that claimed seven lives and destroyed the original Parliament Buildings, except for the library, on the night of February 3, 1916.
Among the items destroyed in that fire was the old mace. The wooden copy that we see today was subsequently made and was used temporarily until the current one was given to us by the United Kingdom in 1917.