Chris Warkentin

Madam Speaker, STARS air ambulance saves lives. For 20 years, the pilots, paramedics and ground crews of the Grande Prairie base have stood ready to act when lives hang in the balance and mere seconds mean the difference between life and death. STARS exists in Grande Prairie because of the enduring generosity of local people. Last week, the STARS gala raised over half a million dollars from the local community to support this life-saving work. I have been proud to stand with STARS since it first launched 20 years ago. I always thank the crews and the donors on behalf of the lives that have been saved and the loved ones who can still hold them close. I also thank them on behalf of future patients, who currently have no clue that they will desperately need STARS someday soon. On their worst day, they will see that red chopper approaching and know that there is still hope. On behalf of my family, our community and the region, I want to thank the STARS staff, donors and volunteers who ensure that there is always help coming when people need it the most.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the government House leader for his words. It is a pleasure, some days, to work with him. It has truly been a privilege to serve our constituents in this place, each and every day. To begin with, Mr. Speaker, thank you for your dedication to this institution, but more importantly to Canadians. You have served in your role very well and with dignity, and you have brought esteem to the chair, and so I want to thank you for that. We thank the clerks and the House officers for their dedication and commitment to this institution as well. They serve us in this place, but really they are serving Canadians. As they preserve this institution and the democracy that Canadians depend on, we thank them for that. To all the long-suffering House of Commons staff, we thank them for their dedication as they deal with members of Parliament who work long and sometimes unexpected hours. We are thankful for their flexibility and dedication to their posts and to Canadians as well. To our pages, this will be our last opportunity to thank them, as they will be heading out. We want to wish them many blessings in their years ahead. We have seen the character and the dignity that they have demonstrated in this past year. We want to thank them for their service to us and to Canadians. We wish them well as they head out. We know that Canada has a bright future when we see young people who look exactly like them. To the interpreters, we could not do this without them. We have a difficult time understanding each other at the best of times, never mind when we are speaking different languages. We thank our interpreters for continuing to translate our words, so that we might understand each other and understand Canadians from coast to coast. To my colleagues across party lines, I want to thank them for their commitment to this country. Specifically to my colleagues on this side of the House, I serve as the whip and they have to put up with me, so I want to thank them for their commitment, not just to our team but to the constituents they represent. Every day, they come to this House to fight for the freedom and opportunity of generations to come. My colleagues do not show up here because of personal ambitions, but because they truly want to serve Canadians. Every day, in every way, they fight for a more affordable Canada and a Canada that will remain the freest place in the world. I want to thank each and every one of them for their steadfast commitment to Canadians. As we continue to focus on Canadians, we are stronger as a team, and I thank them for that. On behalf of my colleagues, I want to express our thanks to our staff who work in our offices, both here on Parliament Hill and in our constituencies, for their dedication to the folks we represent. We thank them for their service. Finally, we could not do any of this without our families. Our families, our children and our spouses, stay at home and make massive sacrifices so that we can serve Canadians and be in this place. On behalf of myself and on behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank our families at home.