Senator Quinn: Senator Gold, can you give some assurance that you will submit to those decision makers on who will attend by requesting the Port Saint John to be in attendance?

Hon. Jim Quinn: Honourable senators, the members of this chamber have heard many comments over the past few weeks regarding climate change from various senators, in the Speech from the Throne and, last night, from the Minister of Finance. There is no doubt that climate change has a dramatic effect on our economy and on jobs associated with that sector.

It’s excellent to learn that the Government of Canada will be convening a summit of industry and transportation officials to discuss critical infrastructure supply chain in early 2022. Having broad representation is extremely important in such a summit. Atlantic Canada plays an important role in transportation in this country, and sometimes representation from Atlantic Canada in such endeavours is thin.

When we are looking at who will be invited, we need to ensure that Atlantic Canada is well represented, particularly from the port sector. One of those ports is Port Saint John, the third-largest volume port in Canada and the only port in Atlantic Canada serviced by our two national rail lines. Can the government ensure that Port Saint John will be invited to the table?

Hon. Jim Quinn: Yes, I have a question for Senator Gold.

Senator Quinn: I will ask Senator Tannas.

I want to start by thanking my honourable colleague Senator Yussuff for his eloquent speech. It was well put. I am honoured to have been appointed to the Senate and sworn in on the same day as Senator Yussuff.

During my call with the Prime Minister about becoming a senator, he said to me:

You’re not always going to agree with the policies put forward by my government. Your job is to add value to them. At the end of the discussion, you still may not agree with what my government is putting forward, but that’s doing your job. I want you to do your job.

Yesterday evening, in Senator Housakos’s eloquent speech, he said we shouldn’t be a rubber-stamping type of process. I certainly didn’t enter this chamber with the idea that I would be part of a rubber-stamping process. My first three weeks in the Senate has taught me some early lessons that maybe, in fact, we are going down that road. For those who have been here much longer than I, it sounds like this has been a challenge for some time.

I agree with all of the comments made by various senators about ensuring that the reputation of this institution is paramount — not only for ourselves, but for the parliamentary and legislative processes and, above all, for the people of Canada.

Senator Tannas, would you not agree that it’s important that we heed the advice I was given by our Prime Minister and which was repeated by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition here in the Senate?