Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, first of all, the hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan asked a question. I do agree and support the courageous men and women who are serving on behalf of Canadians anywhere in the world. I agree with her on all of the issues that she mentioned and all the perspectives of her speech except one.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I listened very carefully to the hon. member. My impression is that his government will come back to Parliament for another vote. The vote that took place in May 2006 was a sham. the Prime Minister said that he would extend the mission for a year whether the House voted for the extension or not.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the hon. member for Mississauga—Streetsville for his appointment as special advisor to the Prime Minister on issues to do with Middle East and this region that he was mentioning. The other issue that I want to touch on is the fact that I was taking his advice as well in May 2006 when he and I both voted against extending this mission.

National Blood Donor Week Act  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the hon. member for sharing his remarks with the House. I am very proud to stand on behalf of British Columbians because blood donation is very important. In B.C. this year the Sikh nation has topped the number of people who have donated blood. They had a reason to donate.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the hon. member for Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert on her presentation to the House. In fact, she was talking to students of 10 and 11 years. I was talking to grade 11 students at Sands Secondary School and they have the same concerns about climate change.

Canada Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. government House leader and heard him say that he is not willing to accept a suggestion from the senators. When we look at it, he probably is more aware of this than I am because he has more experience in Parliament, but when bills are brought in and witnesses come before a committee, they are non-elected people and we take advice from those citizens.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, we would like debate in the House where members of Parliament, the representatives of Canadians, make decisions. This is the place to have that debate. I suggest the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs move a motion in the House so we can debate those issues.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, when it comes to this mission, I voted no to the extension of the mission when the motion was before the House. The Conservative government is not clear whether it will go beyond the commitment of February 2009. We brought forward this motion to make clear the government's position on whether it is extending the mission beyond 2009.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Churchill. I would like to first offer my sincere condolences to the family of the young soldier we lost on Wednesday. Our hearts and our prayers go out to them as they go out to all the families of the young men and women whose lives have been lost in the long struggle.

Budget Implementation Act, 2007  Mr. Speaker, the lumber deal British Columbians have will affect smaller towns. In fact, I already have seen many families leave those small towns to go to bigger towns. The literacy cuts made by the government will indirectly affect the families that move because of the bad deal the government made with the U.S. to make Mr.

Budget Implementation Act, 2007  Mr. Speaker, while I thank the member for Wellington—Halton Hills for his contribution to this debate, I would like to remind him that the Pacific gateway project was the creation of the former Liberal government, and now, when we look at the numbers, we see that we are $44 million short of the Liberal commitment to the Pacific gateway project.

Budget Implementation Act, 2007  Mr. Speaker, the Conservative budget is going to be remembered for a number of things. Canadians are not going to forget the fact that the promise of large scale tax relief never materialized, amounting to a paltry $80 per taxpayer. Canadians are not going to forget the government's failure to act on the environment by choosing to instead offer tax breaks and reductions in funding that will grow Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.

Equalization Formula  Mr. Speaker, in Surrey and Delta property values are rising on average by more than 21%. Now the Conservative government is including B.C.'s skyrocketing property values as part of its equalization. This is a cash grab. Who will end up paying in the end? The hard-working British Columbia families, who have been betrayed by the budget, will.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that we committed 400 additional police officers in the last campaign in 2006. When I am talking to the mayors of Surrey and Vancouver, they are telling me that they have put more police officers than supported by the Conservative government across Canada, so that shows how little it is interested in providing an effective policing system and an effective justice system for Canadians.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, the member asked for my commitment. I certainly will be supporting this bill and will do anything possible on my part to help pass this legislation. However, I would also remind the hon. member that if he was in the House the other day, the hon. critic for justice brought in a motion to speed up the legislation that I mentioned: Bill C-18, the DNA identification bill that would help police solve many missing persons cases; Bill C-22, the age of consent bill that would have made our children, our sons and daughters, safer; Bill C-23, the criminal procedures bill, a bill that would help to make our justice system more efficient; and Bill C-35, the reverse onus bill that we are debating today.