Federal Framework on Distracted Driving Act  Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to stand in the House to provide the closing statement on my bill, an act respecting a federal framework on distracted driving. I want to thank all of my colleagues who stood here today and provided thoughtful and fruitful debate. The last time I spoke to my bill in the House I shared the stories of Amutha and Senhit, who both had their lives taken away by the driver of another vehicle who was distracted by her cellphone and drove through a red light.

Health  Mr. Speaker, March is Nutrition Month, and this year's theme is “Unlock the power of food”. Our food choices are among the most important decisions we make every day for our health. We are seeing significant discussions among Canadians about the role food choices play in a healthy lifestyle.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I have one question, and it is a simple question that could be answered with yes or no. If an organization believed in its core mandate that LGBT people were unacceptable and refused to hire someone that was LGBT, would that organization deserve to receive government money, yes or no?

Child Health Protection Act  Madam Speaker, it is an honour to stand here among my colleagues and thank them all for their efforts and thoughtful debate on the child health protection act. I also want to thank Senator Nancy Greene Raine for her tireless work on the legislation and for entrusting me with helping to shepherd it through the House of Commons.

Status of Women  Mr. Speaker, I recently had the pleasure of meeting with community leaders from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, which educates Canadians about the plight of impoverished people and supports women in their search for social and economic justice. While we have made great strides, and this government is committed to making the involvement of women the priority in all of Canada's activities in fragile states to enable women and men around the world to have an equal voice and equal rights and to live equally in safety and security, more needs to be done.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, I am glad that the hon. member agrees that anything we can do to decrease the rates of smoking is helpful. I would like to just clarify some of items from the KPMG study in which there was an actual increase in contraband tobacco. This was reviewed by independent university academics.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, that has to be reviewed in the regulations. Certainly, these packages being displayed in Canada will have to be plain packaging. I do not know the answer to whether the industry can export packaging. However, if we had the power to do that, I would advocate it not have the ability to do that.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, our government is committed to increasing medical research, as illustrated in our recent $370 million commitment to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. While we have not made any commitment at this point to research in a specific direction, we certainly agree much more research needs to be done on this issue.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, I appreciate the study the hon. member has brought up. This one study flies in the face of peer reviewed studies of 51 different research papers done worldwide by the Cochrane organization, which is an objective research organization. As well, other countries that have instituted this have shown clear evidence through their departments of public health that there has been a decrease in smoking rates, particularly Australia, which has attributed its smoking rates to have decreased by 12% due to these measures.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, there are a number of different studies, a systemic review of world scientific literature supported also in addition to what I mentioned about the Australia department of public health and the World Health Organization showing clearly that plain packaging measures do decrease the initiation of smoking by young people.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, I would likewise thank the hon. member for her excellent work on the health committee. I agree that enforcement is an issue. The bill, once passed, would lead to the authority of the government to produce regulations. Certainly, part of the regulations would have to include a rigorous enforcement regime.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, I would also like to thank the hon. member for his work on the health committee. In regard to vaping, I agree. Many provisions of the legislation need to be reviewed in detail at committee. There is room for improvement. As for the funding, I agree there will need to be funding.

Tobacco and Vaping Products Act  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in support of Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Tobacco Act and the Non-smokers’ Health Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. This legislation would be a critical step for our government in delivering on our commitment to introduce plain and standardized packaging requirements for all tobacco products.

Child Health Protection Act  Mr. Speaker, I have heard much of the same concerns from stakeholders. I agree that the promotion of sport and activity is important and essential for the health and well-being of our children. We have discussed these issues with stakeholders and with the Minister of Health. I can assure the member that the government will be reviewing this to ensure there is no adverse effect on sport sponsorship programs for children.

Child Health Protection Act  Mr. Speaker, as for the effect of the bill in Quebec, many factors are causing obesity in children. I would like to see the data and the study the member is referring to, that this has had no effect on the health of children and rates of obesity. However, we know advertising and marketing influence behaviour of young people.