Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act  Mr. Speaker, to my colleague from Kings—Hants, I recently completed a rural economy tour in southeastern British Columbia and I heard from small business and tourism owners some of the challenges they face and the fact that the federal government is missing in action in the partnership the business owners need with the local, provincial and federal governments.

Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Surrey North for his capable exposition of his party's position and his support for small business. This being small business week, I do want to add my concern about the Conservative budget picking large business over small business. The billions of dollars that would come out of the treasury and into the coffers of larger more profitable businesses is a choice the Conservatives are making.

House debate  Madam Speaker, first, the government member talks about relevance and efficiencies in spending decisions. That is completely laughable when $50 million of money authorized for border infrastructure was syphoned off by the President of the Treasury Board to spend on irrelevant and inefficient vanity projects in his own riding.

House debate  Madam Speaker, on June 21 I asked a question in the House as follows: —the Conservatives are now making cuts they knew about well before the recent election but chose to hide. On the chopping block are thousands of jobs, including the entire Audit Services Canada department, the auditors that serve all the other departments of government.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, of course, a proper strategy, as I am sure the member opposite would agree, has clear, specific, actionable items. It has measures, timeframes and mechanisms for monitoring. A strategy is not just words. It is a clear intention and has ways to ensure progress is being made.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I think what we are seeing today is an accumulation of clarity about the need for a national suicide prevention strategy. We have groups coming together and coming to Ottawa. We have a conference in Vancouver this week on the issue. We have the Liberal Party of Canada putting this forward as an opposition day motion so that the issues can be heard, aired and debated, and awareness raised among parliamentarians.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be part of this important debate today on preventing suicide and the need for a national suicide prevention strategy. I congratulate the Liberal Party leader and member of Parliament for Toronto Centre for bringing this issue forward for a full day of debate.

Senate Reform Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate the NDP member for Louis-Saint-Laurent for her very detailed and interesting speech. However, I must say that I was very disappointed when she proposed a constitutional dialogue on abolishing the Senate rather than a consultation with the provinces to see how we could improve the Senate.

Senate Reform Act  Madam Speaker, I enjoyed my colleague's knowledgeable speech on this. I am from one of the most affected provinces, British Columbia, so I would like to pose to my colleague this question. Could he give us a greater idea and more details about the kind of inequities that would be placed on the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta by this Conservative government proposal?

Health  Mr. Speaker, doctors around the world have been saying it, the CMA has been saying it, and now the Supreme Court has said it unanimously: Insite in Vancouver saves lives. That is why the Liberal government supported it from the start, choosing life over death. With today's hearty slap in the face by Canada's highest court, will the government finally admit it was wrong in its ideological attacks against Insite?

People's Republic of China  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of Liberal parliamentarians, I extend my warmest wishes to the people of China and to all Chinese Canadians as they celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Since former prime minister Pierre Trudeau initiated diplomatic relations with China 41 years ago, the Liberal Party has proudly cultivated the friendship between our two great countries.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I appreciate the points that the NDP member has made regarding poverty, income inequality, some of the government's failures on the economy, and youth unemployment. I have a different angle. There is no such thing as a general case. There are areas where unemployment is the biggest problem.

House debate  Mr. Speaker, the Veterans Affairs caseworkers are overworked, calls are not being answered and veterans are imprisoned in their own homes through a lack of services that they have been promised. Could the government explain why it would rather spend $500,000 on one crime bill rather than on supporting veterans in their time of need?

House debate  Mr. Speaker, I brought a question to the House that was really a humanitarian question. It was a question about services that were missing for veterans and were causing great problems for an individual who did not deserve that kind of neglect. The answer I got back to a genuine concern was a pure platitude, so I will give the Conservative government opposite another opportunity to address this concern from a constituent in Vancouver Quadra.

Canada-U.S. Relations  Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government falls short every time it is faced with American protectionism. When the United States announced its Buy American initiative in 2009, it took the Conservatives seven months to react. According to the WTO, country-of-origin labelling violates trade laws.