Carol Skelton

[First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, November 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the underpinning idea behind the legislation is that economic development and the improvement of the quality of life on the reserves requires a generation of revenue, the ability to raise capital, through much needed capital works, in a commercially acceptable manner with first nations being directly involved in the process.

It is the initial step in self-government of being in charge of one's destiny and being responsible for their own economic development. It is a first step. There is a much bigger journey that must be taken for the first nations to truly arrive at self-government. As Bruce Standingready of the White Bear First Nation put it, “You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time”.

There is much to be done, but this legislation is a good first step. There are many steps yet to be taken.

My colleague from Souris—Moose Mountain took the opportunity to meet with Chief Standingready of the White Bear First Nation in his constituency, and with Bruce Standingready, the nation's technical adviser. He was impressed with their current development in governance, the operation of the White Bear Lake Resort, the Bear Claw Casino and the integration and cooperation with the community of Carlyle.

The White Bear First Nation is willing and eager to take charge of its own destiny and to participate in the development and the use of its natural resources to better the life of its people, on and off reserve.

On the reserve there are many basic issues, like housing and infrastructure. Housing starts are not on schedule, and more than one family is residing in the same house because funding and resources are not there. Infrastructure, like sewer, water, electricity, is vital to enhance the quality of life and to improve the prospects for increased economic development and employment.

The bill would provide the fundamentals and a powerful option for first nations seeking to move forward to have a greater autonomy in terms of determining on reserve priorities and opportunities. It would be optional and it would not derogate aboriginal or treaty rights of the first nations people of Canada.

The mechanics are established through three branches related to the fiscal side and one to the statistical side. The three branches are finance authority, financial management board and a tax commission. They are all geared to provide the capacity to raise much needed finances at the best rate of interest on the long repayment term and without mortgaging our first nations land.

The whole concept depends initially on the ability of the first nations to raise money by taxation of land, interest and rights, the taxation of business activities and the imposition of development costs, just like any other municipality can. This ability, in and of itself, would be of marginal value to first nations if the rest of the concept were not implemented. A typical local community, for example, can raise $6 million in infrastructure from $1 million in annual tax revenues.

A typical first nation must commit three times as much revenue to finance the same amount of infrastructure. This problem is compounded by the fact that governments use their infrastructure to entice investors to build residential, commercial and industrial development on their land.

It is said, a typical community will entice $5 million in private investment for every $1 million of infrastructure. For example, in my province, in the city of Estevan, investors need sewer, water, power, lighting, paving and streets, and that is every community in Saskatchewan.

Finances can be raised only at good rates for long terms on financial markets when the investors are satisfied that moneys lent are commercially safe and secure. To be satisfied of that, they need to be assured that the basis for sound practices are in place at the government level. The bill addresses that.

The local first nations propose a tax law that must be approved by the tax commission, which will only approve it if the first nations community has a certification from the First Nations Financial Management Board. The tax commission promotes a common approach to taxation nation-wide and ensures the integrity of the system. It enables the first nations community to administer the taxation system and develops training programs for the first nations community. Additionally, they reconcile taxpayer interests with the responsibilities of chiefs and councils to administer first nations affairs.

Under clause 5 and clause 10, a budget must be presented for expenditures of revenues with the assurance that a borrowing member will not authorize expenditures of local revenues beyond the budget. There is a provision for audit and for assurance of the integrity of the system.

The financial management board is established and has two particularly important functions. It provides assessment and certification services respecting a particular first nations financial management and financial performance. It manages compliance and has the power to provide co-management or third party management should circumstances require.

The finance authority under clause 57 is a non-profit corporation and it raises the funds. Under clause 74, its responsibility is to secure for its borrowing members through the use of collective property tax revenues into the future, long term financing for capital infrastructure, lease financing of capital assets, as well as short term financing to meet cash requirements. The authority is allowed to issue security bonds and debentures, and to set interest rates, including repayment terms.

It is by these mechanisms that first nations will be able to access national and international financing, not altogether different from municipal government. It models on the municipal finance authority of British Columbia that has 30 years of success and a high credit rating. It is based on the power and concept of pooling borrowing requirements. It is also a leveller.

Smaller and less economically developed first nations receive the benefit of a larger borrowing pool and the ability to borrow at lower rates. Pooled revenue streams from a number of participating first nations will be used to repay the bond holders. The participating first nations are anticipating an A credit rating and that without pledging first nations land.

With respect to the statistical branch, one can argue we presently have Statistics Canada with a cost of millions of dollars. It might be a duplication however. Much can be said that Statistics Canada is not now providing the type of first nations statistics that will be required. The idea has merit. Chief Tom Bressetti stated:

First nations are beginning to realize how important statistics are and how they influence the delivery of programs and services in First Nations Communities. They are important for funding arrangements, fiscal transfers, policy development and infrastructure development. Community leaders will be better equipped to plan and forecast community needs and the community will be in a better position to encourage economic development and investment.

Chief Manny Jules said:

This will provide the tools they need to build their own economies...It represents a positive step towards a better future. It will provide economic growth on First Nations land.

Other sources of revenue may be added to the stream besides property tax, such as resource rents, government infrastructure payments, casino revenue and grants.

I will close with this comment by Harold Calla:

Like all communities in Canada, First Nations have a right to create good lives for their people...the right to be able to plan for the future, to direct how their money is to be spent and to put in place a system of financial management that will provide a foundation for their children and grandchildren.

Its a real step towards placing control over the financial futures of [First Nations] communities back into the hands of First Nations.

That is why I feel this legislation is an important step and why I will support it.

[Fixed Incomes, November 5th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, across Canada, there are seniors who are struggling to make ends meet. Many are on fixed incomes that have failed to keep up with rising expenses. The small increases in their incomes fail to keep pace with major spikes in expenses like rent, electricity and heating.

This government needs to be more proactive to ensure that those on fixed incomes are better able to address these increases faster. The lag time between cost spikes today and increases in their cheques later is creating undue hardship. Seniors in my riding are telling me that their cheques just went up $3 a month and their electricity costs have gone up $30 a month.

It benefits none of us to have our seniors skipping meals or medication just to make these budget adjustments. I know this is a problem right across Canada. For this reason, I hope this government will act soon.

[Quarantine Act, October 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed my pleasure to rise today to speak on Bill C-12, otherwise known as the Quarantine Act.

Canada has had a Quarantine Act for decades, but it has not been updated since 1872 to properly reflect the changing needs of today's world.

No longer do we rely on slow-moving ships to move people. No longer do we trade mainly with cities just down the road. Today's world has millions of people moving across continents every day of the year. Containers by the thousands arrive on our shores with goods destined for every corner of Canada.

But it is not just goods, animals and people coming into Canada that we need to be concerned with; we also need to be concerned with what goes out of Canada. Whether it is the famous rabbits of Australia or the zebra mussels of the Great Lakes, we are all aware of several major problems resulting from careless trade practices. In addition, we all remember SARS and the avian flu problems in British Columbia. Canadians and their economy were devastated by their effects.

Some Toronto businesses say the effects of SARS still linger, and we do not know the actual dollar figure for what SARS cost the city of Toronto and the province of Ontario. In fact, there is a belief that SARS is still affecting the Toronto area.

Bill C-12 is legislation which, for many reasons, could be called a response to SARS. In the wake of SARS, Dr. David Naylor, chair of the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health, made a number of important recommendations.

One of the major recommendations has already moved ahead, with the creation of the Public Health Agency of Canada. The agency has opened and Dr. David Butler-Jones has been appointed the first chief public health officer in Canada.

Another observation by the Naylor advisory committee was that there were insufficient quarantine officers sent to screen air travellers and provide information so that travellers were aware of the situation. Dr. Naylor also stressed that he felt the quarantine officers were sent into the situation with little information and inadequate support materials.

Unfortunately, the agency is not much good until we provide it with some authority, that is, legislation that lets the agency do its job. This is why the legislation before us is so important.

The Naylor advisory committee also said, “The Government of Canada should ensure that an adequate complement of quarantine officers is maintained at airports and other ports of entry, as required” and they should be “fully trained and informed”.

Bill C-12 would give the minister the power to designate a wide range of people as officers, which does not necessarily mean that they would be suitably trained for a quarantine emergency.

Canada needs an updated Quarantine Act and trained professionals to meet challenges in our new world. That also means we must have our present medical officers and health care professionals state their opinions on this new bill.

The new act goes a lot further in granting health officials the powers needed to properly contain and address threats to public health from new and re-emerging infectious diseases.

Unlike the old legislation, the bill focuses on airlines as the primary mode of transport, instead of marine vessels.

The proposed act contains powers not seen before in the hands of health officials. Under the bill, they could commandeer any location or facility of their choosing for use in enforcing the Quarantine Act. Most times, this likely would mean the commandeering of a hotel for use as a containment facility for large numbers of people, but it could be anywhere. This in fact is one part of the legislation that concerns me.

The new legislation says market-based compensation will be provided for anyone who is affected, such as a hotel owner. This is similar to what has been promised to other sectors of the economy before, specifically, cattle producers in the wake of the BSE problems. Unfortunately, it was the political arm of government that decided what they were to receive for compensation. As well, I have watched as the CFIA has taken farmland out of production, causing producers great financial difficulty. The government waited until the market fell out of the specific industry and then compensated them based on new, lower market prices.

A key issue in the bill, which needs to be addressed, is the issue of compensation for conveyance owners. While it is somewhat addressed, there does not seem to be anything definite for individuals and their related expenses during the quarantine period.

Following the SARS crisis in Toronto, the cost of hotel rooms dropped drastically. One would expect the hotelier to be compensated for the cost of a hotel room prior to the outbreak. Do we really think customers will race back to a hotel after the quarantine is lifted?

Compensation must be based on the market price before the problem, not after, and that rate must be decided by an independent group, away from government control.

This legislation as proposed does not adequately address the mechanisms that would be used to access such issues and I hope the government will use some of its time to better explain its position and intentions.

As well, I want to make sure that in the government's efforts to address one crisis, it does not create another. We need to have assurances in place ahead of time or else people may not be willing to cooperate.

The new legislation does for the first time provide some initiative to cooperate. There would be severe penalties and jail sentences applicable to those who make disease management much tougher. I believe this is another good step in giving tools to our health officials to do their job effectively.

While health officials would have more rights and powers, so would the people affected the most. The protection of human rights while carrying out quarantine measures has also been of some concern to me. For example, the bill does not specify what individual or agency would determine the symptoms of each of the diseases listed or what symptoms the individual must exhibit in order to be detained by health officials. It should be noted that clause 62 would give cabinet the broad power to make regulations respecting health assessments and physical examinations.

The new legislation would give those being examined and detained more of a say. When and where reasonable, interpreters will be provided. If possible, people will have the ability to request a medical examination by a physician of their preference.

These types of measures are in keeping with the charter, but I believe they do not handcuff our medical officials from doing their job effectively.

Part of doing their job effectively would be the ability to redirect passengers to other locations as necessary or to detain passengers as needed, and even to prevent travellers from leaving from Canada if necessary. They would be able to screen, vaccinate, disinfect, decontaminate and examine goods, animals and people as needed.

All these measures are designed to meet the new standards of the World Health Organization.

Last week I spoke on the need to be better prepared for emergencies in Canada. The proposed act would better address a problem when it arises, with better surveillance measures and better staffing.

We will be going through the bill thoroughly during committee and I will be bringing forward any necessary amendments at that time.

[Literacy, October 21st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, across Canada there are people who struggle to function every day. Their disability is invisible and affects everything they do, but it is curable. Canadians who lack general literacy skills struggle every day, not only to hide their problem but also to seek a cure.

On Literacy Action Day, we pause and consider what it would be like not to be able to read. This year I was assisted in that with a wonderful visit from Carmen, Debbie, Tara and Carey.

We are reminded of our obligation to help others by giving them the gift of literacy. We know that literacy has positive impacts on health, income, equality and self-esteem.

Every year I meet with people who have learned to read late in their lives. Although literacy comes late for them, they all say they do not regret stepping forward and asking for help.

I encourage those in need to ask for help and those who can to offer it. Let us make Canada a better place.

[Petitions, October 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of people in my riding who are very concerned about the whole BSE issue. Basically, they are inundated with financial calamity. They are losing thousands and thousands of dollars, and people across the country are affected by that.

The petitioners call upon Parliament of Canada to immediately constitute internationally credible protocol to reinforce international confidence in Canada's healthy beef products and thereby replacing damaging political posturing relating to borders with sensible, agreeable rules to all concerned.

I thank everyone, from David in Asquith to June in Perdue, for signing this petition.

[Health, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the government used scare tactics when it devised this scheme. It said that there would be tens of thousands of victims and that the funds would run out. Now we find out different. A recently released audit shows that the fund made $50 million last year. There is still over $1 billion in the fund. The fund is growing while the victims are dying.

Why will the government not do the right thing and compensate all victims who were poisoned with tainted blood?

[Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I want to remind my colleague that I was employed with the Canadian Red Cross Society and I was deployed by the society to the United States. I was not sent by the Government of Canada to help in the United States or even in my mission to Winnipeg. I was employed by the Canadian Red Cross Society as a volunteer.

We have to make sure that all these mutual aid agreements and so on are signed and dotted and that the provinces know they can depend on the federal government. We have to make sure that our field hospitals are supplied. We have to make sure that the Canadian Blood Services is in control of the blood supply and that people have it. We have to make sure that large, vast rural areas have ambulances and that it does not take three hours to get to someone who needs service immediately.

If there is a bus crash in southwestern Saskatchewan and we cannot get a ambulance for three hours to that bus crash where there are seriously injured people, we are going to have huge problems on our hands. We see this in rural Saskatchewan especially. We are short 60 RCMP officers in our province. We have RCMP officers who cannot even have the proper communications. Their radios do not work in some areas of our province. They have to use cellphones and in certain areas their cellphones do not work. That, to me, is not being prepared.

I think we have to look at all aspects of government. We have to look at what the federal government does and we have to make sure that the people involved in emergency services training have the equipment they need to do their jobs. That is the point I want to make today.

[Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, yes, most definitely, I will work with the government to make things better, because I realize from drafting a disaster plan for my community what needs to be done and what has to be done. My concern is that the government will not act as quickly as it should to put the necessary things in place. That is what we have to make sure it does. I want to see a framework that is done responsibly, I want to see it done correctly and I want to see it done as quickly as possible.

[Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act, October 15th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on behalf of my constituents to discuss an issue that reaches far beyond the boundaries of my riding.

Following the terrorist attack several years ago, Canadians have been asking more questions about the preparedness of Canada to handle similar events. In fact, flooding in Haiti, earthquakes in Turkey and other human and natural catastrophes have caused us to pause and ask ourselves what it would be like if it happened here.

Canada has been fairly lucky in the fact that we have suffered few human catastrophes in recent times. Since the great explosion in Halifax, many of our emergencies have been of a weather related nature and with minimal loss of life. While we are fortunate for this, it has lulled us into a false sense of security. Canada needs to be more active in preparing for future crises.

When it comes to discussing emergency preparedness I must mention that I do so from a position of experience. I am proud to say that I am a graduate of the Emergency Preparedness College in Arnprior, Ontario. Since taking my training there and elsewhere, I have been able to put my skills and knowledge to test, mainly through my employment with the Canadian Red Cross Society.

Prior to becoming an MP, while employed with the Canadian Red Cross Society, I travelled to disaster affected areas to assist people with basic emergency needs. I was in Winnipeg after the flood of 1997. I was in Mississippi during their great flooding. What I learned from those disasters is that advance planning and training does go a long way. It is a good investment and a prudent approach to population protection.

Unfortunately, for all the advance training I did see, I also saw that a lot more was needed in Canada. In the event of a mass crisis we do not have enough pre-coordination and training. We only have enough qualified professionals to meet everyday needs but not for an extended crisis. We do not have a wide network of trained, equipped and organized people to rely on.

I must take a moment though to highlight one of the bright lights of my experience, and that is volunteers. Volunteers are the soul of any disaster management system: volunteer firefighters, cooks, cleaners, medical staff, drivers and suppliers. They are all volunteers. Volunteer staff to assist in every aspect. Volunteers and their families give up time together to help others. They spend their evenings and weekends in training sessions. They spend their own money to help others. They are truly the most giving individuals around. Many volunteers often put the needs of their own home and family at the bottom of the list in order to help others.

If we as a government are going to rely on volunteers so much for emergency preparedness, we must also be prepared to help them. In cases of extreme disaster and, in turn, extreme volunteer commitment, we should consider income compensation, job security protection and out of pocket expense compensation.

What happens if our rural firefighters have to fight a three week tire fire during seeding? What happens if the firefighter works in the local restaurant? Will he or she still have a job afterwards? Who will put the groceries on the table for the family during that period? If we are willing to ask so much of them, we must be willing to consider giving something back.

I am sure I speak for hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have benefited from emergency service volunteers. I thank them. I thank them for being there when we needed them.

Having said that, we cannot leave emergency preparedness strictly to volunteers. Canada needs to be better prepared.

This week I was visited in my office by Canada's new chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones. We were also joined by the director general, Dr. Ron St. John. We spoke at length about Canada's state of emergency preparedness, both in general and also specifically as it relates to public health. What quickly became evident and a point of mutual agreement was that we need to do more.

I suggested in the meeting and also in a private member's bill that Canada's medical students should be accepted, encouraged and able to take emergency preparedness training before finishing their education. They could form a network across Canada to help address emergencies far beyond the traditional emergency room.

There are far too many communities that lack a proper plan, resources and staffing to deal with any emergency. Neighbouring communities, and even provinces, have inadequate mutual aid agreements. They are not adequately prepared to come to the aid of their neighbours and this has to change.

A shortage of resources and funding makes it necessary that any successful full emergency response will require the help of one's neighbours. We saw in Florida that repeated crises take a toll on emergency workers. They need to be rotated to ensure they do not make mistakes due to fatigue or harm their own health.

When it comes to mutual aid agreements, I would like to see all services better coordinated, similar to what we often witness with hydro companies. Perhaps it is just the impression given by the media, but in any disaster it seems that out of town hydro workers are among the best prepared to help their fellow workers. They could be leaders for others to follow.

Unfortunately, our rural communities highlight many of the problems also being experienced in our cities. There is inadequate funding even for the most basic of emergency preparedness training. Recent surveys showed that most Canadians do not know basic first aid, let alone have emergency response skills. Skills are nothing without the proper resources.

There are critical resources which do not exist, such as adequate numbers of ambulances, hospital beds, emergency supplies, generators and trained emergency services staff.

I also used to be a coordinator for Canadian Blood Services. I can tell the House that there is room for improvement there. Many rural areas lack enough blood stocks to deal with something as realistically possible as a major bus crash. An event such as a tornado or an earthquake could be disastrous.

Right now in Saskatchewan a team of people are preparing to launch a private rocket into space. While I wish them the best, I also thank them for highlighting the points I have been making. Emergency services in the area have had notice of the planned event and they still do not know how to adequately handle it. Nothing has gone wrong and we all hope that nothing does, but we have exposed a crack in our system that needs fixing. Mutual aid agreements need to be formulated and implemented as soon as possible.

Perhaps the most important point I wish to make in this debate is this. Today we are moving toward passing this legislation and then we will move into the implementation of it. It is not just enough to pass the legislation. We have the responsibility to monitor the implementation, properly fund it and support it. A plan is not worth anything if we cannot execute it.

We realize the need for better emergency preparedness and I really hope the bill does not lull us into a false sense of security. We need to consider ourselves lucky in the past and we must be more vigilant and prepared in the future.

As I said in the beginning, we in Canada have been lucky for the most part. We have had our share of emergencies and we have dealt with some better than others. We have called inquiries into our handling of them and have implemented a few of the recommendations. That is a good start, and I emphasize start, but we need to follow through.

I will conclude my remarks by once again thanking the volunteers in our emergency service response framework. For the trained professionals who work so hard for us, I hope we can create legislation to provide them with what we need. I also want to thank Canadians personally for stepping forward when the need arises. We are a giant nation that often witnesses help coming from ordinary citizens in many forms time zones away.

From coast to coast we truly are neighbours. We really do mean what we say, “If you need a hand, give us a call”. Let us use this legislation to make that a little easier.

[Criminal Code, October 13th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, while I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to Bill C-2, I draw no pleasure from speaking to the child exploitation issue yet again. The Liberal government has failed to protect Canada's children in the past and the proposed legislation does little to correct that injustice.

Going door to door during the election, I was struck by the amount of people who raised the issue. The concern was broad. Parents, grandparents, teachers, police officers, neighbours and even teenagers brought the issue to my attention. All were unanimous in urging me to demand the toughest protections possible.

Recently, I sent out a community publication on the issue and the comments I got were revealing.

Dwight of Saskatoon was unequivocal when he stated, “All forms of child pornography are unacceptable”. Brian, also of Saskatoon, said “I think people having child pornography material should be prosecuted and face severe consequences”. Saskatoon resident Natasha said, “Child pornography should not be tolerated in any way, shape or form. These children are our future--this is not to be taken lightly. Child pornography made her “sick, sick, sick”. I could not agree more.

Perhaps Tina identified the real problem. She said, “The time may come when an MP or government official's child is exploited, that will change people's minds”. I sincerely hope that is not what it takes, and I do not understand why the government fails to send a better message to Canadians. The Liberal inaction and indifference to the protection of our children is inexcusable.

In a survey of my constituents the results were clear. When asked if they thought all types of child pornography were unacceptable, 92% said, yes. When asked if child pornography could be produced without causing harm to a child, 97% said, no. If 97% of the people say that pornography harms a child, why has the government done nothing to stop it? When asked if they wanted the laws of Canada to ban all types of child pornography, 98% said, yes. When asked if those caught with child pornography should be included in the national sex offenders registry, 96% said, yes.

This is significant because it shows how much Canadians believe that child pornography has a direct correlation to sex offences. My constituents believe that this issue hits close to home because when they were asked if they thought child prostitution was a problem in their neighbourhoods, 83% said, yes.

The last two questions of the survey lead me to my next part of the debate involving child pornography and the Internet. My constituents were asked if they had accidentally encountered offensive pornography on the Internet and over half of them said, yes. This is important when we consider the final question they were asked. They were asked if Internet pornography increased the risk of child sexual exploitation and 89% of my constituents said, yes.

My constituents have been clear. They believe child pornography in all forms should be banned and also that its presence on the Internet is harmful.

In the last Parliament I introduced a private member's bill calling for mandatory installation of software on all public computers accessible by minors which would block offensive and dangerous material. Unfortunately, an early election call put an end to that important initiative.

A judge in my riding explained to me that this was a growing problem, as he witnessed on a recent visit to a local library. Crowded around a public access computer was a group of young children viewing pornographic websites.

If it is happening in such a public place, one can only imagine what is happening upstairs when a parent is busy making dinner. Even when children are supervised, the most unexpected things can happen at the worst possible moment.

A grade one teacher was excited to get Internet access in her classroom as it would allow her to enhance the learning experience for the children. As a fun exercise she suggested they name off a bunch of animals to research. Once she had the list on the board she asked the class to pick by vote. We must remember that this was a grade one class and, without any malicious intent, they picked the beaver.

One can imagine having to be a teacher and explaining to the children why they could not research such an animal. While the situation is funny to some, it is but one example of a growing problem of youth and an open Internet. They are being exposed to graphic and violent material by accident and without proper explanation or guidance.

One can only imagine the warped view of sexuality many children will develop long before their parents get a chance to discuss the issue with them. This legislation does nothing to prevent these problems, and for the problems it intends to fix it does not.

I have a big problem with the artistic merit defence. A number of people in the arts community say that it is just art, that it has no negative effects and that it does not inspire anyone.

Well, when one goes to the computer and goes to Google and searches the term “art inspires”, 250,000 references are found. Artists often speak of their desire to see their art inspire people for one reason or another. I am sorry but we cannot have it both ways. Either art has impact and influence or it does not. I suggest the arts community in Canada step forward and prevent a minority of perverts from using them as an excuse for their fetishes.

The hon. member for Wild Rose brought in a Toronto police officer to meet with MPs and he showed us child pornography images. They were sick and disgusting and they left a long lasting impression. It does not please me to say that I can still recall many of those images in detail. My heart goes out to our law enforcement officers who must work through this smut all day just to go home and interact with their young children. It must have a stressful impact on many of these young mothers and fathers.

The Liberal government knows the legislation is not the toughest it can put forward. It knows its legislation has too much room for interpretation and grey area. It knows it has not fulfilled its promise to Canadians. It knows too that raising the age of consent from 14 to 16 years of age would provide our police with an important new tool.

Our law enforcement officers are often powerless to prevent the exploitation of children, especially our street kids. As long as adults can get sexual access to children through weak laws, they will. We do not want Canada to become a sex trade tourism location any more than it already is.

On city streets we often see prostitutes barely past puberty selling their bodies to support one addiction or another. We see police forced to sit by and watch as they do not have the proper tools to target child hunting Johns. If we as a government do not provide them with the tools to fight this kind of crime, we cannot blame them when things go wrong.

In Toronto last year a child was abducted on her walk home and killed. Her killer says that his access to and viewing of child pornography was the main reason he committed this horrible crime against this innocent child. Police were blamed for the high amount of sex offenders in the community. They were blamed for the delay in finding the killer. They were blamed for not preventing access to child pornography in the first place.

Well I say shame on the Liberal government. The Liberals must be the ones to shoulder the blame for not providing the police with the legal tools and necessary funding to prevent and fight such crime. Now they have the opportunity and we see them skirting their responsibility.

I have some questions for every government member. When their young child or grandchild grows up will they be able to say that they did their absolute best? Will they be able to tell them honestly that this was the best they could do? Are they proud of this flawed legislation? We need to fulfill our obligations to our electorate.

I sincerely hope the government plans to amend its legislation to reflect the wishes of the majority of the House and the majority of Canadians. Our children are counting on us even if they do not yet know it.