Mr. Speaker, the Bloc wants to take 10%. They can have the full 10% of the blame then.

The Bloc members need to understand, and I know that they do, that if they chose to end this filibustering, they have the power to do it. In a minority parliament like this, we obviously cannot do it alone, but the Bloc, or the NDP for that matter, could choose to say, “Enough is enough. We've now let this go on for five weeks. We've given them the opportunity to do it. We've allowed them to run their course and they have responded in the way that they have, but now it's time to get down to business, like adults.” The problem is that neither the Bloc nor the NDP has chosen to go that route. However, I want them both to know that the door is still open. That door will not close.

If there is an interest, I would encourage their leaders in the House to contact our House leader so that we can have that discussion about moving things forward for Canadians. Things did operate much better, and I must say this to my NDP colleagues, who I really have not picked on in this debate, but they did operate much better prior to the NDP leader choosing to not work with the government anymore. We accomplished a lot of great things, such as pharmacare and dental care. I send my kudos to the NDP.

I have said a number of times already in the House, as well as in my community, that we had a really good working relationship with the NDP, which gave us the ability to get things done on behalf of Canadians. The NDP knows that. I understand that, for political reasons, it may have had to make the decision to leave the supply and confidence agreement. I understand that, and I am not naive to that. However, NDP members still have the opportunity to look at what is going on in chamber and realize the amount of tax dollars that are being spent for this charade to continue.

At some point, I genuinely hope that the NDP will come to its senses and say that five or six weeks is enough. Now it is time to move on so that we can talk about things such as the online harms bill, so that we can get down to doing business for Canadians, such as protecting children when they are online.

Mark Gerretsen

$508,543.00