Larry Bagnell

[Business of Supply, February 4th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the member made a good point, but there are other exciting opportunities with the new administration. I want to mention three of them, which I do not know if anyone else will have time to speak to today, although I am sure the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands will support them.

We have management agreements with the United States on porcupine caribou, polar bears and migratory birds. In relation to the porcupine caribou, it protects the lands of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the calving ground of the Canada-U.S. porcupine caribou herd, which is so essential for the Gwich'in people.

Hopefully, the member will think these are also important Canada-U.S., exciting potential and positive opportunities for the new Biden administration. On its first day, it signed an executive order to protect the ANWR.

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, February 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I would like to remind people that most of the Harper years we were in deficits. Although Liberals have spent the most time in government in Canadian history, the Conservatives built up the biggest debt. In fact, coming into this pandemic, Liberals had the best debt servicing costs to the size of the economy than any time in the last 100 years, including during all the Conservative governments.

The member talks about cutting expenditures, but members of her party, including herself at the end of the speech, asked for more expenditures for business. Which of the major expenditures that people and businesses really needed, which she mentioned she supported and her party supported, and that have led to the debt, does she disagree with?

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, February 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I have three quick questions.

First, the member mentioned reducing carbon in mining. Would he support the idea of getting off-grid mines to use less carbon and get off of diesel?

Second, I was delighted to hear the member mention nature and clean areas. Would he also help celebrate President Biden's efforts to protect the Yukon-Alaska Porcupine Caribou herd?

Finally, does the member agree with Canada's recent record investments in nature and in protected areas of land and water?

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, February 2nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for talking about airlines. They are important to us.

The small northern airlines provide service to the northern communities, but to be able to do that, they need the revenue from the flights that go south. To get that revenue, they need to interline with the big airlines, but reasonable interline agreements with the big airlines have not yet occurred.

I wonder if the member, and hopefully all members in the House, would join me in encouraging the large airlines to make meaningful interline agreements with the small northern airlines that are so important to us.

[Standing Orders and Procedure, February 1st, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the member wanted to expand three types of debate: the take note on petitions, Private Members' Business and expanding the Adjournment Proceedings. There is already not enough time for government business.

What does the member think about the solution that Britain and Australia have of having a second chamber where we could have much more of all three of the items he wants?

[Standing Orders and Procedure, February 1st, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I hope everyone can hear me this time.

Congratulations to the member for a very thoughtful speech. She mentioned private members' bills. I have a comment and then a question.

As I said earlier, if we had a parallel house or second House of Commons as they do in Britain and Australia, we could work on many more private members' bills.

My question relates to this. A lot of private members' bills do not go very far. One reason is that they have not been scrutinized by bureaucratic experts. No matter which party is in power, a lot of government bills are fixed or do not go forward because of the experts, who have spent their entire lives on that topic, weighing in and at least giving their opinion.

Does the member think that a way to have more private members' bills go through would be getting expert opinions, or further information, on the bills from a relevant department's experts who have spent their lives studying the issues?

[Standing Orders and Procedure, February 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I will not comment on the other place; they make their own rules.

However, the first point is a very good one, and I think it supports my point about looking at a second chamber of the House of Commons, because in a second chamber we could have more private members' bills and more debate, and more people could speak on government bills. That would be an excellent way of increasing the ability to have more meaningful debate, and more MPs could actually get a private member's bill forward.

[Standing Orders and Procedure, February 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I think that is a great idea for PROC to look at, and then PROC could make recommendations

[Standing Orders and Procedure, February 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we would not be decreasing the time that Parliament sits, but just be giving more time to more important input on important issues, as opposed to spending one, two or three hours just having people stand up and sit down when their votes are already recorded.

[Standing Orders and Procedure, February 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I think that if there were a way for people to have more time to deal with some of those very important motions, it would be helpful.

On electronic voting, I forgot to mention that three parties already, and I think probably four when they get to speak, will be supporting that. As far as the point the member made about men with young children goes, yes I have a nine-year old and a twelve-year old, but I did not want to bring up my situation.