Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre for all the work he has done on behalf of Canada's environmental party in the NDP, pushing forward a plan of protection for the precautionary principle. He has been a real leader in this field since his election back in 1997 to ensure that Canadians are protected.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the question of the member for Burnaby—Douglas is a very valid one. In the city of Burnaby, Mayor Derek Corrigan and both the Burnaby city council and the Burnaby school board have been leaders in the field municipally, showing that there is life after pesticides. Indeed, the kind of measures that he spelled out are very important.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am honoured, on behalf of Canada's environmental party, the NDP, to speak to this motion because that is the role that we have undertaken in this Parliament, as we did in the last Parliament. What we attempt to do as a party in the House, working in this corner of the four corners of the House, is to put forward environmental platforms and strong environmental interests, so that Canadians who are increasingly concerned about the environmental degradation that we see in this country have a party to look to.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I listened with a great deal of interest to the hon. member's presentation but it seems to come down to this. When he says “we” I guess he means either a Conservative or Liberal administration, but when he says that we have not done anything about other epidemics that exist in the country, and he mentions the 24,000 deaths a year because of pharmaceutical products in Canadian hospitals, he seems to be saying that since we have not done anything about that we do not need to do anything about pesticides.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I listened with considerable interest to the presentation by the hon. member for Québec. However, I was also saddened by her presentation. While she spoke of the whole constitutional aspect of this debate, she did not speak of the impact of these pesticides on the lives of Quebeckers.

Burnaby Lake  Mr. Speaker, Burnaby Lake is one of the jewels of the greater Vancouver area and is home to a wide and fascinating variety of waterfowl species. It is an important part of our quality of life. However, the years of silt coming in have taken its toll on the lake, which is becoming a marshland.

Forest Industry  Mr. Speaker, Canadians are learning more about the bad deal the government signed with the U.S. in its softwood surrender. Now we find out that each time a provincial government wants to make a change in its forestry policies, it will have to ask Washington for a permission slip.

Forest Industry  Mr. Speaker, the fact is the minister has not been seen in his riding in three months. He knows nothing about the needs of B.C. softwood communities. We know the minister has a history of confusion about his loyalties, but he is supposed to be representing softwood communities in B.C. and across Canada.

Norad  Mr. Speaker, I will continue with my comments about the hon. member's speech. He raised a couple of points that deserve to be clarified. First is the issue of growing prosperity in the world. As the member well knows, even Statistics Canada tells us that 60% of Canadian families are earning less now than they were earning 15 years ago.

Norad  Mr. Speaker, this is an extremely important issue and an extremely important debate, and I am surprised and quite appalled that there are no members of the Liberal Party here in the House this evening to debate this issue.

Public Health Agency of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to make some comments on Bill C-5 and to ask the member a question. I come from British Columbia where, as members know, an outbreak of avian flu two years ago devastated the eastern Fraser Valley zone of the lower mainland. We found at that time that the coordination among various federal agencies was done very poorly.

Darfur  Mr. Chair, in my riding of Burnaby—New Westminster, there is a large Sudanese community from southern Sudan. These people, and many others across the country, are paying close attention to our debate here this evening because there is no doubt that Canada has a certain responsibility in the matter.

Respecting International Bridges and Tunnels Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question, which did not relate to Bill C-3 but to the softwood lumber industry. It will be my pleasure to respond to this question. First of all, the Premier of British Columbia has said that this was not the agreement he had approved and it was not what he wanted.

Respecting International Bridges and Tunnels Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. It concerns, specifically clause 13 of the bill, which provides that “The Minister may order the owner...to take any action that the Minister considers appropriate to ensure that it is kept in good condition”. My colleague from Windsor West has illustrated this fact very eloquently.

Respecting International Bridges and Tunnels Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to start the discussion on Bill C-3 by coming back to the comments of the member for Mississauga South. He gave quite an impassioned comment and, for those of us who have actually been in the House over the last few years, a rather strange comment, in that he said he was concerned about the Americanization of Canada.