Pacific Gateway Act  Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's compliments, but the topic of discussion is the Pacific gateway project, not diamonds. I am glad that the hon. member woke from his slumber and is now asking a question. What we are talking about is the Pacific gateway and it is for mov

Pacific Gateway Act  Madam Speaker, my colleague is absolutely right about the rail crossing at Patella Bridge. The bridge is over 100 years old. It has been identified for the last 25 years as needing to be replaced. Again, the federal government has neglected western Canada. It is another example o

Pacific Gateway Act  Madam Speaker, I agree that the gateway project is a national initiative. It will benefit all of Canada, provided there is a fair amount of contribution of federal dollars and that they get to where they are needed. My riding of Langley, British Columbia will be directly affecte

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, it is an honour to speak to the private member's bill that my colleague from Wild Rose has introduced. I will start off by condensing the purpose that we, as legislators, have to ensure that the safety of Canadians is utmost. It is tragic that the Prime Minister a

Justice  Mr. Speaker, the B.C. solicitor general said that it was “absolutely unbelievable” that a man avoided jail and was given house arrest after stealing a car he crashed into a truck, killing his passenger. It is beyond comprehension that someone can kill people and not go to jail.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, before presenting the petition, I would like to thank the Speaker for hosting a lunch yesterday for the Governor General's performing arts awards. It was very much appreciated. This petition is from residents in Langley, British Columbia. They are saying that chargi

Parliament of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I hope the hon. member across will answer the next question not from a prepared speech, but actually from his heart. It was yesterday at justice committee that he endorsed the concept of minimum sentencing. We are dealing with a very high risk individual. If my priv

Parliament of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to ask the government what it is going to do about auto crime. Approximately 450 vehicles per day are stolen in Canada. Over the last decade this has grown dramatically. We are now one of the highest countries in the world for auto thef

Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, in regard to the comments of my colleague, the member for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, and the answers from the minister, what I heard was the minister saying the mayors are not doing their job. That could not be further from the truth. My colleague from Port

Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, the member from Fort McMurray brought to this House's attention the SE2 issue and the fight. I appreciate his hard work in this House and also bringing attention to SE2. It is very important to the Fraser Valley. The question that I have relates to the presentation

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present a petition from residents of my riding of Langley. The petition brings to attention the opposition that the public has to charging a tax on a tax. By charging GST on the federal excise tax and other taxes, it is double taxation and they ar

Human Resources and Skills Development  Mr. Speaker, thanks to Conservative pressure the Liberal government finally had to expand access to compassionate care benefits. As we have said all along, the minister had discretion to make needed changes, but instead we saw months of inaction while families suffered. One of t

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, Sumas Energy 2 is a huge polluting power plant that the U.S. wants to build beside the Canada-U.S. border. It is equivalent to 336,000 vehicles idling 24 hours a day. All local governments, the province of B.C. and the Conservative Party have continually fought agai

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I was at Chuck's funeral. I believe these bills were brought forth to honour him. I know that promise was made. That is why we have these bills before us. A month ago for the first time I experienced having a private member's bill voted on. Everyb

Criminal Code  Thank you. I will take my time. I will ask my hon. colleagues to pay attention because we are talking about a very serious matter. These constituents of mine lost $140,000. The province of B.C. gave back the PST they had paid. If we do the math, that is 7% of $140,000, which is