Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, obviously, I think it is a good idea that we have a right to a healthy environment embedded in some legislation. I would say that the government was so timid about this that when they first brought forward Bill S-5, that right was only in the preamble. It had to be moved into the body of the text to have any legal impact at all.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I was not there at the committee stage to hear that, but I have heard comments in debate here about it. It was an issue during the debate at report stage. However, the member would have to ask the Conservatives that question. I can only guess, and I would rather not put my suppositions onto this.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I spent much of last week in Washington, D.C., with the international trade committee. We talked to quite a number of legislators and congressmen, and almost every one of them brought up this issue: How are we going to get materials mined so that we can get the clean tech of tomorrow going?

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I am happy once again to rise and speak to Bill S-5, a bill that updates the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. I have spoken a couple of times on this bill at various stages, and I will repeat some of the messages I gave in those speeches. Here we are at third reading.

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Winnipeg North for that comment, because this is really what is at the heart of this bill. It is not forcing the government to pick and choose winners or losers. What it is aimed at doing, which has been its aim from the start, is shining a light on wood to say that we have been building with concrete and steel for decades and centuries, so let us look at wood.

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act  Mr. Speaker, I would really like to thank the member for the opportunity to comment on that. It is very important that Canadian legislators go to Washington, and anywhere in the United States, to put forward our case on softwood lumber. In their laws, the Americans have the right for the wood industry to put forward complaints about how international trade occurs, but there is no mechanism, for instance, for American home builders to be third parties to those complaints in the courts of the United States.

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act  Mr. Speaker, it is past high time for this bill to be adopted. Quebec brought forward the wood charter many years ago. British Columbia brought in its Wood First Act. This is the kind of bill we need in the federal world to push for federal infrastructure to be built with wood and other environmentally friendly products so we can fight climate change, support the forest industry and have beautiful, safe buildings that will last for centuries.

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act  moved that the bill be concurred in.

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act  Mr. Speaker, I request that it be carried on division.

Department of Public Works and Government Services Act  moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. Mr. Speaker, it is an honour, once again, to rise to speak to this small but mighty bill, Bill S-222. It would require the minister of public works and government services to consider the environmental benefits of building materials when building federal infrastructure.

Innovation, Science and Industry  Madam Speaker, I am sure the government thinks it is doing the right thing for science and research, and it has made some investments in that regard over the past five years or so, but it is clearly missing an obvious investment here, an investment that would be relatively small in comparison to some of the other programs it has initiated, an investment that would have a huge payback, and that is to invest in our young researchers and graduate students.

Innovation, Science and Industry  Madam Speaker, this adjournment debate arises from a question I asked the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry on May 1. On that day, as I was asking the question, on the lawn of Parliament Hill, there was a crowd of young researchers from Ottawa universities demanding to be heard by the government.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, again, we had 22 years before Bill C-28 to fix this. We have had two years since then. This should have been a much better bill. We now have the right to live in a clean and healthy environment within the scope of CEPA, not within the scope of the rest of the federal mandate, so it is a tiny step.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to ask for a recorded vote, please.

Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I agree that we have seen a gradual improvement in the way we treat animals broadly, especially within the research context, and I am happy to see that included in the bill. The bill has a lot of good things in it. That is why I think it is important that we support it.