Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member that Canadians would like to see this kind of commission established. I think it is important to Canadians that they know their national security agencies are keeping them safe while respecting their privacy and their rights. What is it about the bill that concerns the member in terms of the powers of our national security agencies?

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, we have been having these discussions for three and a half years. We have laid out what we believe the principles are that would underpin this kind of independent review committee. People understand why we see the need for this kind of agency, and why the agency has to work in concert and similar to the agencies that review other national security agencies.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, as I already mentioned, we believe that incremental changes needed to be done this way, but the principles that underpin this particular independent review agency are exactly the same principles that underpin the review agencies for CSIS, CSE or the RCMP. They are similar.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, if we look at the minister's mandate letter and the amount of work that needed to be done to improve our national security agencies and independent oversight, there was quite a bit of work to do, and we felt that we needed to put the most significant pieces of that puzzle together first.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, as I said, we had a very ambitious timetable. We knew we had to make some substantive and really challenging changes to our national security agencies and the way they operate. We committed to Canadians to do just that. Piece by piece incremental change was the approach we decided to take to bring Canadians along.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, if we look at the list of bills that have come forward on public safety, it really is quite substantial. Yes, after the 2015 election, the mandate letter given to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness was quite significant. We believe that we tackled the most difficult and contentious issues first and fit those pieces of the puzzle together.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by stating that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Scarborough—Guildwood this morning.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act  Mr. Speaker, since the fall of 2016, our government has been dramatically reshaping Canada’s security and intelligence apparatus to ensure that it has the authorities and the funding it needs in order to keep Canadians safe. At the same time, we have been ensuring that those agencies, which we trust with tremendous power, have strong and robust independent review mechanisms so that the public can be confident that they are using their powers appropriately.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, the government understands that diversity is our strength and an essential factor in mission success. Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence tell us how we are working to meet our objective to increase the representation of women by 1% every year over the next 10 years to 25% of the overall force?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, maybe my hon. colleagues will like this question better. In 2013, defence spending was $15.6 billion, dropping below 1% GDP under the previous government. In 2018, defence spending was $21.3 billion. The Leader of the Opposition's plan for defence has no specifics, and that means perhaps more cuts for our men and women in uniform all over again.

Business of Supply  I have pictures. As the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons said, “The only tweet that the Conservatives will not change is their affiliation with Faith Goldy. They seem to be very proud when it comes to those actions.” It is out there for Canadians to see whether they like it or not.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I am pleased to rise and speak to the important subject of diversity and inclusion in our Canadian Armed Forces. I will take the next 10 minutes to address how the Canadian Armed Forces fosters and encourages diversity so that our forces remain strong, serve our whole society and will endure in the future.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the Criminal Code listing regime is an important tool for countering terrorism and is part of the government's commitment to keep Canadians safe. The update to the listings is an important step to fight terrorism globally and ensure that Canada remains a safe and peaceful country.

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, I commend the member for Brampton South for her advocacy on this topic. We are working with our partners in business and academia in order to strengthen Canada's cybersecurity and to become a world leader in the field. We have invested $895 million to fund our new national cybersecurity strategy to ensure that our cyber-systems are secure and resilient, to encourage innovation and to support effective leadership and collaboration between government and all our partners.

Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, we believe that economic prosperity and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. They go together. We can look at LNG Canada's recent decision to proceed with a $40 billion project on the west coast of British Columbia. It will create thousands of good jobs and generate billions of dollars in new revenue for government, all while building the cleanest large-scale LNG facility in the world.