Hospice Palliative Care  Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to stand today in support of National Hospice Palliative Care Week 2017. Hospice palliative care is about living well right to the end. Seventy per cent of Canadians have no access to such services, but we have the power to change that. My private member's bill on palliative care comes back to the House tonight for third reading.

Status of Women  Madam Speaker, as I said earlier, while the Minister of Status of Women spends millions on her office renovation, women in need are being left behind. This week at committee we heard testimony from the Canada's Building Trades Unions that no money is available to unions to help advance women in the skilled trades.

Holidays Act  Madam Speaker, today I rise in this House to speak on the subject of Bill C-311, an act to amend the Holidays Act for Remembrance Day, presented by the member for West Nova. This bill seeks to modify the Holidays Act to make Remembrance Day a legal holiday, which would impact federally regulated employees but would not force the provinces to adopt it as a paid statutory holiday.

Ministerial Expenditures  Mr. Speaker, documents reveal that the Minister of Status of Women spent more money renovating her offices than on supporting shelters for abused women. While the minister was spending over $1 million on her luxury accommodations, she spent less than $700,000 on emergency housing for battered women.

Status of Women  Mr. Speaker, this self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister sure talks a good talk, but has failed to do anything meaningful for women in need, like zip for pay equity. The Liberals have no issue padding the pockets of their Liberal friends and wasting taxpayer dollars on their lavish accommodations and vacations, but when it comes to funding shelters for women in need, the Liberals have not made it a priority.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I have one question. In other discussions in the House, the member for St. Catharines read into Hansard the definition of hate crime. The definition that he read said that hate crimes were actions that would incite violence against persons. Would the member's bill change the definition of what a hate crime is to incorporate damage to property?

Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 1  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very fine speech. Every day in the House the government says one thing but does another. The Liberals have broken many of their promises and this bill is just another example of that. What changes would the hon. member like to see made to the bill?

Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 1  Madam Speaker, with respect to the parental leave adjustment, the same amount of benefit would be taken and spread over 18 months, which means that people would have to live on a third of their salaries. That really is not going to be very helpful. I am the chair of the status of women committee.

House debate  Mr. Speaker, it seems as if the Liberal government is pretending that the issue is that nobody wants to modernize or that people are resistant to modernizing. I was here when we had the debate on the Standing Orders and heard all kinds of ideas, good ideas, on how we might change things.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, my colleague is always so eloquent and informed when he speaks. I am struck by the hypocrisy that I continually hear in this debate. The government is bringing a message that we are having a conversation. This is so misleading to Canadians. There is a motion that it is using its majority to drive through to change procedures.

Points of Order  Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the Minister of Science today indicated that I had a new interest in science. It is a matter of public record that for more than 40 years I have been a supporter of science as a professional engineer, as a fellow of Engineers Canada.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that no research was done on Canada 2020. It is basically Liberal advertising that cost Canadian taxpayers $20,000. Given that the scientific community has found that more funding is needed for research, how can we be sure that the Liberals are not wasting existing funding on the Prime Minister's friends?

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the interest is why we are spending research funding dollars for infomercials to promote the Liberals. It seems the best way to talk to the Liberal front bench is to cut a cheque to Liberal insiders. SSHRC gave $20,000 of research funding money to Canada 2020 for a Liberal innovation infomercial.

Instruction to Committee on Bill C-243  Mr. Speaker, I spent a lot of time in the member's riding, in Kingston, when I was at Queen's. The need is evident for greater maternity leave flexibility and benefits, and I would spend zero more dollars from the government studying that particular issue. What the strategy should be, and hearing from the various parts of Canada, if there are regional differences, would be the kinds of things I would be curious to hear about.

Instruction to Committee on Bill C-243  Mr. Speaker, while it is my honest desire to review the Hansard of every committee here on the Hill, that is not always possible. I take my colleague's word that he presented this before the committee, had the discussion, did not receive the answer he was looking for, and so is looking to the House to find the support he was seeking.