Petitions  Mr. Speaker, the second petition relates to the ongoing threat to pollinators, particularly from neonicotinoid insecticides. The petitioners are from Victoria, B.C., and a large number are from the Montreal area.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, it should be clear by now that I think the negatives outweigh the positives, but opening up trade with the European Union is an important balance. This is one of the things that gets overlooked in these debates as well. We certainly already have the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and after the Uruguay round, the creation of the World Trade Organization means that the protectionist measures that people railed against in the call for free trade are already gone.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Courtenay—Alberni, because I meant to mention the Coasting Trade Act. It is not one of the features that people hear about a lot under CETA. Starting on page 75, we find out that foreign ships, for the first time, will be exempt if they are within the European Union.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, this is an open question. In essence, there would be reciprocity but for one thing. This provision is still so controversial within the European Union, it is going to the European Court of Justice. We do not know if it will be ruled to be ultra vires of the European Union to put such a provision in its treaty.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise again in this place to speak to the concerns I have about Bill C-30, legislation to enact the comprehensive economic and trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. There are a number of fallacies that have come up in the debate today, and I will try to address those.

Petitions  The second petition, Mr. Speaker, is one on which thousands of Canadians have sent me petitions. These come from Leamington, Ontario; Surrey, B.C.; Langley and Vancouver. The petitioners call on the government to put in place labelling so Canadian consumers will know whether the products they buy and consume contain genetically modified organisms.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to rise in the House to present two petitions. The first is from residents throughout my constituency. I know the hon. minister is interested in pursuing more affordable housing through the federal government. The petition asks the government to look at the proposals from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to create a national affordable housing program.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, it is very common in this debate to hear members proclaim, as though it is an actual fact, that investor-state agreements do not challenge the environment and do not erode our environmental laws, but the reality, the track record, is entirely to the contrary. We have had laws that protected us from toxic gasoline additives actually repealed in the House of Commons based on a chapter 11 investor-state dispute, when Canada did nothing wrong in terms of the evidence, the science.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan gave a very erudite speech and I appreciate his resurrecting of John Maynard Keynes from the Conservative caucus. I just wonder if the member distinguishes for himself, as perhaps Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz do now, the difference between trade deals that were about breaking down protectionism to allow trade in goods and the new era of deals, like the TPP or CETA, that are more about managing trade, reducing the power of sovereign nations, and expanding the power of transnationals.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, it is true that in the debate about NAFTA, the single biggest damaging feature of NAFTA never got mentioned in the debate, which is chapter 11. That same sleeper element of investor-state agreements rests within CETA in Bill C-30. Has my friend actually studied the effect of foreign corporations having the right to bring multi-million dollar cases against Canada for actions we take that are not in the interest of protectionism, but are all about the protection of health and safety, and the environment?

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise to present two copies of the same petition from members of my community throughout southern Vancouver Island as well as throughout the Lower Mainland. These petitioners cite the risks to the British Columbia coastline of tanker spills, particularly containing bitumen mixed with diluents, a substance that cannot be cleaned up.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, “Within 18 months of forming government, we will introduce legislation to enact electoral reform”. That is from the Liberal platform. It is very clear, and it was repeated with clarity in the Speech from the Throne, and the mandate to us as members of the special committee said we were replacing first past the post.

U.S. Decision Regarding Travel Ban  Mr. Speaker, I have been delinquent in not profoundly thanking the member for Vancouver East for bringing forward this emergency debate tonight. The nature of the Safe Third Country Agreement is explained in the open letter that has been referred to many times this evening, and that is: Canada's immigration legislation indicates that, in determining whether a country should be designated as "safe" for refugees, consideration must be given to the country's human rights record and to whether the country complies with the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Convention against Torture.

U.S. Decision Regarding Travel Ban  Madam Speaker, I am only able now to rise for the first time to address the substance of this debate, having been here for several hours. I am grateful to have a chance to put a question to the member for Kingston and the Islands. While we have been debating, I received an email from a 19-year-old young woman in my riding who wrote me this.

U.S. Decision Regarding Travel Ban  Mr. Speaker, I surfed my rules of procedure thinking there might be a point of order I could raise, but I could not find an order dealing with my request. Outside in the cold, I have never seen anything like it. There are people lined up to get into this place. The public galleries are full.