House debate  Madam Chair, I take issue with something that was said by the member for Timmins—James Bay earlier. He was critical of the notion that we contact people we know in the United States to talk to them about the importance of Canada's softwood lumber supply to that country. Was that not precisely the strategy we used to get CUSMA across the finish line and to deal with the steel and aluminum tariffs?

House debate  Madam Chair, that is a tricky question simply because a lot of other factors have come into play that have robbed us of our opportunity to do value-added in the forestry sector. The era of Reaganomics, Margaret Thatcher and some of the other neo-Liberal policies back in the seventies stripped a lot of manufacturing from Canada and sent it overseas.

House debate  Madam Chair, I know that in past softwood disputes the Government of Quebec attempted to make changes that would more closely harmonize with New Brunswick, especially, in order to escape some of the impacts of American retaliation. That has not worked. In British Columbia, we have taken the brunt simply because our forest tenure system and access to Crown land is significantly lower in cost than it is in the United States.

House debate  Madam Chair, I have lived in many communities where forestry is a big industry, including in our riding where we have the Teal-Jones mill, which is a very large operation. Throughout Canada we have had these dislocations on the paper side and the lumber side, etc. There is no doubt that our industries are going through a transformation, and it is support through the transformation to new technologies, new innovations or perhaps simply new jobs in other sectors that would make a difference for these workers.

House debate  Madam Chair, although this is not the first time I have risen in the House since we returned, I should take a moment to thank everybody in Fleetwood—Port Kells for sending me back here for a third time. I do not know if they just wanted me out town or if they really like the work that we have been doing, but I presume it is the latter.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, it is excellent to see you in the chair again. We have been hearing an awful lot about housing prices and the impacts of various things on housing prices, especially in Vancouver and Toronto. Has the member given any thought to the impact of foreign money coming into the country illegally, perhaps through criminal organizations, that is basically distorting the housing market in metro Vancouver and in other places across Canada?

An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19  Madam Speaker, we are talking about government supports, but would my colleague not agree that these government supports are a back up, but not as strong a back up as we would get if we could get people vaccinated. The fourth wave is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. To see more people in the restaurants, to see more people comfortable being in the opposition lobby would likely be a lot stronger if we got the vaccination rate up to the levels where people were convinced and were satisfied that they would be safe no matter where they were.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  Madam Speaker, I respect my colleague a great deal and I have no problem answering his question. What is going on with the Wet'suwet'en territory is concerning. It is troubling. As politicians, we do stay out of the way of policing matters. We also have to defer to the Province of British Columbia, which is basically setting the framework for what is going on there.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  Again, Madam Speaker, out of respect for a person I do respect quite a bit, I will answer. The fact is that Dr. Suzuki issued a statement today in which he retracted his comments and apologized for them. We have to recognize that this gentleman is extremely passionate and sometimes passions get away from people.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  Madam Speaker, that is exactly what this motion allows. A fully vaccinated person who does come down with COVID-19 could still go to work. The Conservative opposition to this measure would deny that person the opportunity to serve their constituents.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  Madam Speaker, I think we are missing an important point here, which is that in spite of the presence of a hybrid voting system, anybody and everybody would be free to come to the House to fulfill their duties except if they were sick or if they were fearful of getting sick. At that point, the hybrid system would allow them to do their jobs.

Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees  Madam Speaker, I will note, with pleasure, that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Brossard—Saint-Lambert. I want to spare a moment for all of us in British Columbia. There are more weather events on the way. Our thoughts are with our emergency services people and everybody else still trying to recover.

Flooding in British Columbia  Madam Speaker, I have a question on a different part of the community infrastructure, but I want to congratulate the member for his very obvious grasp of the essential elements in his communities. I think they are being well served. Based on experience I had a long time ago when I was on the radio in Kamloops, we broadcasted to Merritt and we broadcasted to Princeton.

Flooding in British Columbia  Mr. Speaker, it is good to see you in the chair. I guess there will be no more fisheries committee for you. We have heard an impassioned plea from the hon. member for government to step in and do things, and government can indeed do that. One of the things we have to be mindful of is the continuity of effort.

Hybrid Sittings of the House  Madam Speaker, if I go into the lobby over here, I know all but one person has been double-vaccinated. I know the one who is not, and there is a darn good reason for it. Does the hon. member not agree that he is playing Russian roulette every time he goes into that lobby over there?