John Baird

[Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague from Chicoutimi—Le Fjord to know that debate is welcome.

In the resolution we just presented in the House, we are proposing 10 more hours of debate. I am sure that a member with considerable influence can talk to his whip so that he can speak to the debate at report stage or at third reading.

Since the NDP whip, the hon. member for Hull—Aylmer is here, I would like her to know that our colleague from Chicoutimi—Le Fjord would like to take part in the debate. He represents a riding that has a military base, so I would like to hear his observations and those of his constituents.

[Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia is not my friend, he is my brother, my brother from another mother. He is my brother in the cause of peace, prosperity, and freedom, my Conservative brother from Winnipeg.

What we have seen is discussions in this place are becoming absurd. The opposition does not want the legislative process. Part of the legislative process is having a vote, standing up and being counted.

If the opposition members disagree or are not thrilled with a piece of legislation, they just do not want a vote to ever happen. They are so convinced that they are right on every issue that they feel that if they can just drag it out, eventually people will see the wisdom of their views.

If opposition members want to debate something consequential, they could say, “Let us work with the government. We will have less debate on this bill and more debate on that bill. This one has had really good committee hearings. It has been robust.” Unfortunately, that is not what we have seen.

I would be very pleased to say to the member from Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia that we could talk about other issues after this debate.

[Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for her comments, but she had the opportunity to go to committee. She had the opportunity to spend as much time as she wanted at committee presenting amendments, having those amendments debated and then committee members actually had a vote on those amendments. How much time would she like to see us debate the bill in this place: 10 hours, 20 hours, a million hours?

What the official opposition wants to do, and it seems to me that it is a green-orange coalition in this regard, is to drag the debate out over every single piece of legislation and invite the government to bring in a motion to allocate time for further debate. It is 10 more hours of further debate. It is five hours at report stage and five hours at third reading. That is a heck of a lot more than most legislatures and most parliaments would give to report stage.

[Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, thank you for your very thoughtful intervention. Once again, you have distinguished yourself as a wise helmsman of this place.

I am surprised by my friend from Winnipeg on his thoughtful intervention. What we should be able to do is have the different parties in this place sit down and say, “This bill is a really consequential and important bill. We have a lot of members who want to contribute and participate in the debate. Could we have five days of debate on it?”

This bill is not quite as consequential. It is shorter. It had good hearings. The government came forward and amended the bill to make it better when we listened and heard what we did at hearings. However, we do not see that. What we see from the official opposition is it just wants to be able to put one more notch on its desk with another time allocation motion, rather than standing up and entertaining a reasonable discussion about what we can do. That is really unfortunate.

When I was the opposition house leader in the Province of Ontario, we sat down with the government and developed a programming motion with the Liberal government of the day. We said, “Here are our 10 bills that we debated this fall. We will have so much time for all the bills”. Then we could negotiate. “We want five days of debate on this one. This one is inconsequential. We are happy to debate it in two hours”. However, we do not see that from this official opposition.

[Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, June 16th, 2014]

The reality is that is what they want. I would ask the member for Ottawa Centre how long he would like to debate the bill.

The government listened very closely to the debate on the bill at committee. We brought forward thoughtful and considered amendments. We tried to work with the opposition. We came forward with a substantial amendment. The member opposite pooh-poohs it and that is unfortunate.

The motion calls for 10 hours more of debate. The first time the member had an opportunity to question the minister, all he did was rant about not having enough time to debate it. He did not even use the time available that he had to debate the bill. It is all about process. It is all a big sham.

[Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, what we have seen from the opposition, particularly the official opposition, is members want to debate things forever. They never want things to come to a vote. Their objective is to be able to rail in the House and say we have 77 bills that have had time allocated.

[Foreign Affairs, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member opposite for the question and for his interest in African issues.

Obviously, we think the time has come to review the status of our relationship with Madagascar, with a view to normalizing relations. We do think it is important to have some consultations before we do so, and I would be very pleased to take the member's suggestion under advisement.

[Foreign Affairs, June 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canada and our government are very concerned by the rise in terrorism in Iraq, and we extend our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who have been killed.

Since 2012, the ISIL has been a listed terrorist entity in Canada. We are committed to working with the Iraqi leadership. I should point out that Canada has not been asked to participate in any military effort. Nor is it something we are considering.

[Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, June 10th, 2014]

It supported interprovincial trade.

[Foreign Affairs, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we put it forward to the Obama administration, which has signed it, to try to ratify it, to put it before the United States Senate where his party has a significant majority. We will follow that very closely.

Obviously, we will follow the international discussions on this issue. We already have a strong arms control regime in Canada to prevent arms from getting into the hands of terrorists and bad actors.