National Defence  Mr. Speaker, let us go through this one more time. Last year the Liberals complained about the former prime minister's tinkering with the definition of combat missions. Back then, the man who is now the Prime Minister's senior foreign policy adviser said that the Iraq mission was combat and that the government should be honest with Canadians about such a serious matter.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I think it is a cul-de-sac we have run into. We are clearly in a combat zone where Canadian troops are at the front lines. They will inevitably be drawn into what most people would call combat. Rather than spend a lot of time debating whether it is or is not combat, I am going to go back to General Vance who said it is a hybrid mission somewhere between traditional combat missions and some kind of peacekeeping mission, but there is no doubt at all that Canadian troops will be on the front line.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I am not sure the member listened all that carefully to what we have been saying on this side of the House, because we support the government's initiatives to provide aid to refugees and humanitarian assistance to prevent the collapse of surrounding countries. We have also called for anti-radicalization measures, which unfortunately are not mentioned in the motion.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, of course, the obvious answer to that is something that I talked about in my speech and New Democrats have talked about again and again. The first step is to sign the Arms Trade Treaty, which the Conservatives refused to do with some spurious excuse that it affected gun owners in Canada.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I would like to advise the House that I will be splitting my time with the member for Drummond. Like all MPs, New Democrats welcome the opportunity to have this debate in the House on how best to engage and defeat ISIS. It is interesting to see that the Liberal government is following the precedent set by the Conservatives of asking Parliament to approve the deployment of Canadian troops in active conflict zones.

Syrian Refugees  Mr. Speaker, in November, when the government announced it would recognized LGBT refugees as among the highest risk Syrian refugees, I was among the first to praise the government for changing Canada's policy to recognize the fact that LGBT refugees are subject to extra risks simply because of who they are.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the minister why it is that we have not gone after the sources of funding and the arms sales to ISIL. We know that $1 million to $3 million a day in oil is still being sold on the world market, and this is what allows it to pay its troops and buy arms.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for his speech today. It was much more clear than some of the other information we have had. I would also like to thank him, of course, for his service in the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. As someone who also worked in Afghanistan as part of a training mission on international human rights in 2002, I share some of the doubts that the minister expressed about the ultimate impact of our mission in Afghanistan, as we saw the government of Afghanistan lose control of the Kandahar airport on December 15 of last year.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, I thank the Prime Minister for brining this debate to the House. We all welcome the chance to talk about something that is so important and such a great threat to world peace and security. If we are going to have a really good debate in this House and, as the Prime Minister said, talk about what it is that Canada can do that others cannot, we are going to be making the argument forcibly on this side that Canada could be providing a leadership role in cutting off the funding, the arms, and the flow of foreign fighters to ISIS.

Justice  Mr. Speaker, communities across the country are working hard to tackle this problem and so many other public safety challenges, but despite all the talk from the previous government, police forces across the country still do not have the resources they need. To make matters worse, in 2013 the Conservatives cancelled the police officer recruitment fund.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, on page 71 of their platform, the Liberals promised that if they became the government, they would “end Canada's combat mission in Iraq”. Unfortunately, not only has the government failed to end the bombing missions, it has refused to tell the House what its plan is and whether it is actually planning to extend the military mission.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the government promised to end the bombing mission in Iraq, yet it is still continuing. The government said it would come up with a new plan, and again Canadians are still waiting. When the Minister of National Defence was asked a simple question about whether there will be a vote in the House, yesterday he said, “You can't just answer yes or no”.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, theMinister of Foreign Affairs is in Rome today to discuss the coalition's campaign against ISIS. In the 2015 campaign, the Liberals promised to end the bombing, yet it is 2016 and the bombing is still continuing. Today, the Liberal government is discussing its plans with our allies in Rome while at the same time refusing to tell Canadians anything.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, I have not heard a better and more comprehensive statement of the challenges faced in a riding by any MP who has stood up on the throne speech. I had the opportunity of meeting the new member for North Island—Powell River in her capacity as a community development worker.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I salute the community work the minister did before coming to the House. I want to quickly ask her two questions. First, as she may be aware, I put forward a bill to provide equal protections for transgendered Canadians, transgendered Canadians being some of the people who are quite often forced to use shelters and who are subject to some of the worst violence in the country.