Supply  Mr. Speaker, we are at the point now where I receive e-mails and letters from people from inside the department asking that they be subpoenaed and asking if they can be put under oath. The hon. member is correct when he says that it is a career limiting move to actually go ahead and speak the truth about what is happening within the department.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be a part of this debate. The encouraging presence of many members in the House is admirable and shows the passion that arises from this important debate. I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan. It is most remarkable to hear the Liberal government members talking about their admiration and respect for the DFO frontline workers and what excellent quality of science is being performed in the field.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, clearly this debate raises the ires and passions in the House like few others. In my riding of Skeena--Bulkley Valley, this is the most despised federal agency we have, the one that has the least amount of credibility on the ground and the one that has managed its file most poorly, and that is saying something when we get to federal agencies.

Parliament of Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I aspire to one day have such a capability of presenting ideas and notions in the House as the hon. member now has. I am going to speak in English so my question is really clear. The member made a comment about the Prime Minister acting as ship without a rudder.

Parliament of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's comments on how this House has been able to work effectively together and in some cases very much so; however, DFO has not been responsive to the travesty on our west coast with respect to salmon stocks. I wonder if he could comment on, as effective as this House is, the apparent vacuum of power in leadership that is happening on the government side.

Parliament of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, the hon. House leader has some curious responses to some curious questions from the Bloc in defending the Prime Minister's salary. This is a new day in the House of Commons. I was initially filled with some amount of confidence in the House leader's description of this as a simple and very transparent piece of legislation until he made reference to the government's great track record on following through on its commitments.

Credit Cards  Mr. Chair, I wonder if we could move away from the identity theft issue and the notion of the patriot act and step back to personal management. My hon. colleague raised the issue earlier about young people having access to credit cards and our colleague from another party described it as a good offer and a good deal.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, I would like to present some cold, hard numbers to the minister. The number of litres spilled from the Terra Nova rig last week was 165,000. The size of the oil slick, which has been caused by that spill, is nine kilometres long by one kilometre wide. The number of seabirds that will be killed by that pollution is 10,000.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, today I have the pleasure of presenting a petition, which comes from right across my riding of Skeena—Bulkley Valley, that is opposed to the open net caged salmon farming industry. The petitioners are calling upon the government to seek conditions in legislation that forces salmon farmers to use closed net systems.

Softwood Lumber  Mr. Speaker, next week Canada's Prime Minister has a chance to do right by Canadians. Small communities in my riding have been desperately waiting for years now for the U.S. to lift its illegal tariff on softwood lumber. The courts have ruled, and industry knows it is coming. What is the government waiting for?

Department of Canadian Heritage Act  Mr. Speaker, I do not have much of a reply other than to note the obvious pride which the hon. member has for the natural areas around his riding, and the importance of that place to his constituents. The importance of creating sustainable, new and well resourced protected areas and parks in our country clearly is going to be a benefit to Canadians in future generations.

Department of Canadian Heritage Act  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has asked an excellent question. B.C. was out in front. The New Democratic Party when in government was very strong in pushing forward strong, resolute forums. One of the ways this worked was that there was proper consultation on the land base. Again this speaks to the cultural shift that I mentioned earlier, where at times people considered parks a bad thing, particularly in the rural areas, because they were seen as preventing what possibly could happen on the economic base.

Department of Canadian Heritage Act  Mr. Speaker, the only comment I would make with respect to the increasing of the parks within Canada is a point that was raised earlier. If we do not resource these things properly, then it will be done poorly. Simply hitting a target may be fine and good, but we have heard stories in the past where ministers would look out of a plane's window and decide that there would be a park in a certain area.

Department of Canadian Heritage Act  For free. Indeed, yes. He does not have to actually carry that bill, unlike many Canadians who are looking to do the right thing. I spoke earlier to the notion that any further shifts in responsibility for parks must come back to the House. Initially, this met with some derision and some opposition from members in the government.

Department of Canadian Heritage Act  You are welcome. I am now hearing thanks, Mr. Speaker. That is quite encouraging. We must instruct those people who assist government, people in the Privy Council and in the Prime Minister's Office, that they in fact may not be steering the ship entirely. They may have to talk to their own party members, and heaven forbid, they may even have to speak to some of the opposition members to gain support for a piece of legislation that Canadians clearly think is important.