National Strategy on Flood and Drought Forecasting Act  Mr. Speaker, today we are speaking to Bill C-317, a private member's bill from the member for Lac-Saint-Louis. This bill asks the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, in consultation with the provinces, indigenous governments and municipal governments, to develop a national strategy for flood and drought forecasting.

National Strategy on Flood and Drought Forecasting Act  Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague from Lac-Saint-Louis is a champion for all things water in the House and in this country. I would like to thank him for mentioning my old friend, Bob Sandford, who I worked with in the Rockies back in the early 1970s and has gone on to be a global spokesman for water issues on behalf of Canada.

Environmental Bill of Rights  Mr. Speaker, the vast majority of Canadians believe they should have the right to live in a clean, healthy environment. The government believes that, too, as it voted in favour of a United Nations motion that enshrined that right around the world. However, we do not have that right in law throughout Canada.

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, this is such an important bill that will help workers across the country and help all communities across the country. As he mentioned, it has been an NDP issue for many years. I remember one of the first private member's bills I saw tabled in this House was from my former colleague Karine Trudel, who tabled very similar anti-scab legislation.

Government Business No. 30—Proceedings on Bill C-56  Madam Speaker, the member got to the point towards the end, under your guidance. I would like to stay on the topic of the bill and talk about one of the main things this bill would do, which is that it would take the GST off of purpose-built rentals to promote the building of new rental accommodations.

Municipalities  Mr. Speaker, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is in Ottawa this week to discuss the essential work its members do in over 2,000 communities. Sixteen of those communities are in my riding: Fruitvale, Montrose, Trail, Warfield, Rossland, Castlegar, Slocan, Silverton, New Denver, Nakusp, Grand Forks, Greenwood, Midway, Osoyoos, Oliver, Penticton and the regional districts of Okanagan–Similkameen, Kootenay Boundary and Central Kootenay.

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I am glad my colleague from North Okanagan—Shuswap brought up the example of the long-term care homes that have been so problematic in our valley and in our province of British Columbia. The company Anbang, through Cedar Tree and others, perpetuated a situation of very poor care for our seniors: mothers, fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers.

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I am sure they were blueberries from British Columbia. They are bigger and better. I mentioned in my speech the fact of two very significant takeovers that happened during the Harper era. One was from, basically, the Chinese government, in our oil patch; the other was from Petronas, the Malaysian oil and gas company.

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, perhaps I should back down now and apologize for one part. I said they were bigger and better. They are certainly bigger in British Columbia. The taste may be up for debate. I would like to thank the member for the last part of his question. I know he is a real advocate for natural resources in Canada and Quebec, especially forestry.

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I do not believe the member was listening carefully enough, because I never said any of those things. What I said was that the Mulroney government did not—

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, all the examples the member gave were from the Harper government, and I praised Harper in the speech. I do not do that very often. I just wanted to point that out. I was saying that Harper changed all that; actually, I could have mentioned PotashCorp and all those things, because that was in my notes as well.

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I would totally agree. In my speech, I briefly mentioned the need to really develop and bolster our intellectual property programs and culture in Canada. That is outside this act, which controls investment and the takeovers of Canadian companies. We are studying this in the science and research committee right now, about how exposed a lot of Canadian research and development is to foreign takeover, foreign theft and foreign entities taking our intellectual property because they have the legal right to it.

National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to rise here today once again to speak to Bill C-34, which would update the Investment Canada Act. I spoke to this bill on Monday. It is now Thursday and not much has happened in the interim. We did consider a report stage amendment and voted on it, an amendment that would have taken some of the powers vested in the minister in this new act and moved them to cabinet.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, maybe the member does not really understand how confidence and supply agreements work. There is an agreement between the parties. The Liberals say they will do X, Y and Z that the NDP would like done, and we will see if that is enough to provide our support in confidence agreements.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is kind of obvious. Yes, that is what the New Democrats are proposing. I said in my speech that the GST was never meant to be charged on the necessities of life. We do not pay GST when we go to grocery stores and buy food. However we heat our homes in Canada, and we have to do so, we pay energy bills, whether to electricity companies, natural gas companies or oil companies.