Crisis in the Philippines  Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Burnaby—New Westminster for his comments. Manitoba is home to one of the largest Canadian Filipino communities, including in Selkirk—Interlake. Our hearts and prayers are with them and their families and the work they are on relief efforts in the Philippines.

Crisis in the Philippines  Mr. Chair, I am pleased to be able to participate in this very serious debate tonight. As all of our speakers have already stated, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the Philippines. Our encouragement goes out to those who are reaching out and providing humanitarian assistance in the Philippines, as well as those here in Canada who are still missing family members or have not heard from them because of communication lines telephone lines and other infrastructure being destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan.

Crisis in the Philippines  Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Scarborough—Rouge River for her comments tonight. It is important that we have these respectable debates and talk about the issues that are important. She mentioned how important the donations are right now and how important it is that we got boots on the ground as quickly as we did.

Crisis in the Philippines  Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague from Ottawa Centre for his intervention tonight and how important this debate is. It is to show and demonstrate that members in Parliament are standing in unison with Canadians across the country, especially with the Filipino Canadian community in so many urban centres and across Canada in rural communities like mine in Selkirk—Interlake.

Veterans Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all our military who have served us so proudly over the years. As we have said before, we have been working with the Chief of the Defence Staff and the chief of military personnel to ensure that members of the Canadian Armed Forces are not released until they are prepared.

Veterans Affairs  Mr. Speaker, we have been working with the chief of military personnel to ensure that members of the Canadian Armed Forces are not released until they are prepared. Every possible accommodation is made to ensure that soldiers are kept in the forces. Before being released, members of the Canadian Armed Forces work with the military on a transition plan.

Canadian Museum of History Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Oakville for his great presentation today. Just last month, I met with the Association of Manitoba Museums. It told me that it is excited about having the Canadian museum of history and the sharing artifacts that is now going to be available to museums across Canada, especially in rural Manitoba and rural areas.

Veterans  Mr. Speaker, last spring it was discovered that the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie had said that First World War veterans fought “a capitalist war on the backs of the workers and peasants”. There was no demand for a retraction from the Leader of the Opposition, even after veterans themselves called the comments outrageous.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament I chaired the environment committee. I am proud of the work that we do through Environment Canada. A lot of people do not realize that Environment Canada is the fifth largest research organization in the world. The four larger ones are in the United States.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the compliment to my family. We have had a chance to work together on a number of issues and I do appreciate her comment. On the issue of environmental permits, we as a government have reduce the redundancy and duplication of services between different jurisdictions.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to rise today to speak on behalf of my constituents from Selkirk—Interlake about how important the building Canada fund is to our municipalities and about the importance of our economic action plan to our farmers, commercial fishers, and small businesses throughout the riding.

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, through the Canada-Europe trade agreement, our government is creating new and historic opportunities in Europe for our agricultural producers. Almost 94% of EU agricultural tariff lines will be duty-free when the Canada-Europe trade agreement comes into force. Our government has successfully negotiated an outcome that provides our exporters access to 500 million new hungry consumers.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned about everyone who will lose their jobs. With the changes that are happening with the roll-down of operations in Afghanistan, we have gone through a renewal, looking at all our strategic assets and all our operations. We want to make sure that we are investing all our capabilities into our front lines by making sure that we are not investing in unnecessary practices and procedures at this point in time so that we can increase the readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Iraq  Mr. Speaker, the Mujahedin-e Khalq , or MeK, are Iranian refugees living in exile in Iraq. MeK refugees have suffered serious hardships living in camps Ashraf and Liberty, including being targeted by mortar and rocket attacks. On September 1, the last remaining residents of Camp Ashraf were attacked leaving 52 dead and 7 abducted.

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, the bill does provide for co-operation between Attorneys General across this country as we have seen in other pieces of legislation. The federal Attorney General and provincial Attorneys General would be coordinating any problems they may see in increases in imprisonment in provincial jails.