Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand here today in support of this bill. For me, I guess it is pretty cut and dry, Mr. Speaker. As Mr. Dent and Mr. Braden have indicated, clearly we can change our legislation or we can go to court, spend a couple hundred thousand dollars and be forced to change our legislation by the courts. I personally would rather see us spend the money on the programs and services, Mr. Speaker.
I have heard some comments here today made by my colleagues. I think we have to be practical in what we are talking about here. This may seem funny, but I do not think if we ignore same-sex couples or we decide we are going to discriminate against them, they are all of a sudden going to throw their hands up and say "You know, this is just too much work and too much effort. Forget it, we are going to go on to heterosexual relationships." I do not believe that kind of thing happens, Mr. Speaker. I think it would be silly to think that would be the case.
We talk about the best interests of the child. The fact remains this child lives with parents who are of the same sex. If there is ridicule and teasing on the playground, that exists whether or not we allow both of them to legally adopt or one to legally adopt.
There certainly are concerns for those parents and that child when only one is the legal guardian. For instance, if the child goes for medical attention and it is something that needs permission of the legal guardian, if the one legal guardian is not available, there could possibly be delays. The child may have a hard time travelling outside of our country's borders and may not be able to do so without their legal guardian in tow.
Well, there has been a lot of discussion about morality here today, Mr. Speaker, and I really do not think that is where we need to focus our attention on. I think we need to focus our attention on the legality of what we are doing here today. I am interested to see what kind of things the public has to suggest when we have our public hearing and I look forward to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause