Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, I must have touched a nerve with this member, but rightly so. He did not answer any of the questions. We know that the government fired the nuclear safety regulator but to this day we still do not know why. It has not been able to provide any reasonable justification for that decision.

Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Thunder Bay—Rainy River.

Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the opportunity to speak to the bill again. Bill C-5, the nuclear liability bill, is an important bill. It is a culmination of years of examination and review of the old bill and is a concise overhaul of the old bill. I want to take this opportunity to echo what the parliamentary secretary said earlier.

Canada-EFTA Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, as we always do, Canadians have a discussion about our trade dependence on the United States. As the United States is going through a recession these days, we are witnessing a significant impact on Canadian jobs and on the economy. There are always discussions on the need to diversify our trading partnerships, our exports and our imports so we are not that dependent on a single state.

Price of Petroleum Products  Mr. Speaker, I am glad the parliamentary secretary had the opportunity to speak because he really made my case. I really do not have to highlight for Canadians the fact that he had nothing to offer. All he could come up with was something that I already pre-empted in my speech.

Price of Petroleum Products  Mr. Speaker, I know the hon. member works hard for her constituents and I thank her for the question. I talked about the broader idea of our policy and I encourage her to stay tuned for the details, but I want to repeat what I said. The idea is that we want to less tax on the things that we want, such as income, investment and jobs, and we want to tax things that we do not want, such as pollution, greenhouse gases and waste.

Price of Petroleum Products  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this very important matter as a follow up to my colleague from Markham—Unionville. The issue of gas prices is very important to Canadians. Many of my colleagues, from all parties, have indicated that a lot of Canadians have asked questions of parliamentarians, of other politicians and of other political leaders about the situation with the rising gas prices.

Price of Petroleum Products  Keep exaggerating. It's good for us.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited  Mr. Speaker, today the government announced that it is shutting down the MAPLE reactor project at AECL. This technology was being developed to replace the aging NRU reactor at Chalk River, which produces medical isotopes. Considering the isotope shortage crisis that the government created earlier this year, how can it tell us that this decision will not have a negative impact on the secure and long term supply of the medical isotopes?

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited  Mr. Speaker, I will tell members what I am surprised about. I am surprised that the minister is here answering questions. I hope he does not disappear like he did last time. The minister told us at the natural resources committee that the National Bank review of AECL was completed.

Canada Post Corporation Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's speech with interest. Would he clarify one thing for me? In his speech he said that he came from an area of Canada where they valued private enterprise, and I am sure that is the case. Could he name an area in Canada where private enterprise is not valued?

Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, I first want to echo my colleague's comments about the fact that our committee has been doing a pretty good job of working together and advancing good, strong, sound policies. Fortunately our committee has escaped some of the Conservative tactics. I want to thank the parliamentary secretary for working cooperatively with the committee.

Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, I am really surprised because my colleague is not known for hyperbole and being selective in his remarks. When I spoke to the bill, I said that not only the industry asked for it, but the host communities did as well. I do not know if he was there when the mayors testified before committee.

Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, this is the first time I have had to make a speech over a period of two days. I have about two minutes left so I just want to summarize what I said previously in my speech, which is that the Liberal Party does not support the amendments presented by the NDP. We think that the bill as it stands, after a comprehensive study, is needed for the industry, and we urge the government to bring it back for third reading as quickly as possible.

Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act  Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to speak to Bill C-5. I spoke in the debate at second reading and now I have the opportunity to speak at report stage. Fundamentally, the bill is an administrative one. It does a lot of housecleaning on the Nuclear Liability Act. The last time that was done was over two decades ago.