Federal Sustainable Development Act  Mr. Speaker, sustainability in all of our natural resources, including oil and gas, is critical. As I said in my previous answer, natural resources is an important sector of the Canadian economy. Anything the federal government can do to support that industry and to do it in a d

Federal Sustainable Development Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to support Bill C-57, which seeks to amend the Federal Sustainable Development Act. Before I begin, I would like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development for their excellent work, their positive a

Committees of the House  The member for Peace River—Westlock will have three minutes left on his discussion when we resume on this fascinating topic. It being 1:30 p.m. the House will now proceed to the consideration of private members' business as listed on today's Order Paper.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I sit on the industry committee with the member opposite, and I have found his contribution to be very good to our committee. As we were developing the IP strategy, I thought his questions to the witnesses were excellent. The report was great too. The IP strategy tha

Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund  Mr. Speaker, only a year ago, two towns in my riding were flooded. The homes of many people in L'Île-Bizard—Sainte-Geneviève and Pierrefonds-Roxboro were damaged or even completely lost. Despite the military and financial assistance we provided the province and the help of Quebec

Social Development  Mr. Speaker, last week, Montreal hosted the OECD social policy forum and ministerial meeting. The forum brought together ministers from the 35 OECD countries, as well as over 350 Canadian and international representatives from business, trade unions, academia and civil society.

Science  Mr. Speaker, we know that science, technology, engineering, and math are key to Canada's economy. We also know that children are innately curious. We must therefore encourage children to pursue careers in this field. We must find exciting ways to help our children discover scienc

Oil Tanker Moratorium Act  Madam Speaker, a challenge with pipelines is to find a balance. As we have seen in the debate so far, some people are very upset that any pipeline could be built and some people want every single pipeline to be built. Our government is looking to find the right balance, as well a

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from the Filipino Canadian Association of the West Island of Montreal. FCAWI, as it is commonly known, has a mission statement to create communities in its neighbourhoods. It does so under the Filipino custom of bayanihan. FCAWI does this through so

World Interfaith Harmony Week  Mr. Speaker, the first week of February is World Interfaith Harmony Week. This United Nations initiative recognizes the importance of respect between religions. It is wonderful to see that interfaith groups across Canada observe this week by putting on activities bringing peopl

Impact Assessment Act  Mr. Speaker, my colleague brought up an interesting point about relevance and a question about who has standing. I think he is trying to make the argument that people who have direct economic benefit have more standing than others. I disagree with that. How would an environment

Impact Assessment Act  Madam Speaker, the member pointed out that the process of having pipelines approved is lengthy and challenging. There is no question about that. It has also been challenged that the government has been misspeaking when it says that the previous government was not able to get one

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, countries are increasingly relying on unique comparative advantages and on their specialities to foster economic development. Canada has several talent-rich sectors, which means that our country is well positioned to be a future leader. Can the Parliamentary Secret

Department of Veterans Affairs Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak in the House today to Bill C-378, a bill to amend the Department of Veterans Affairs Act. The welfare of veterans and their families is an important issue to me and to our government. It takes more than recognizing sacrifice on Remembrance Day

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, as our government has often pointed out, the economy has to run with the environment. There are valid concerns people always have when we talk about pipelines and the environment. I wonder if the minister could speak a little about the work that was done to ensure t