I want to thank the member from Ottawa West–Nepean. You bring a refreshing, new perspective to this particular bill and on many other issues on behalf of the good people in Ottawa West–Nepean.

My question to you is: There’s a group of individuals we seem to not be talking about enough, which is our public servants. This bill risks huge potentials of politicizing certain decisions that are being made at the leadership’s office. These individuals go to work each and every day to best serve their community as a whole. They go in wearing the community on their backs, in their hearts, and this is potentially going to put them in a very difficult position as far as the decisions they make. And those are backed by mayors such as David Crombie, Barbara Hall, Art Eggleton and David Miller, who say that this particular bill risks ending meaningful democratic local government.

Why should we be engaging not only with the public but also those that are serving our community? Why is engaging them, having a discussion with them so important?