The Member of Parliament for Provencher says he will certainly be voting against the bill introduced Thursday by the Liberal government.

The federal government introduced new legislation which spells out conditions for when dying Canadians can get medical assistance to end their lives. The legislation says medically assisted death

(Provencher Member of Parliament Ted Falk)should be an option for adults suffering intolerably and where death is reasonably foreseeable. It also says they must be 18 years or older and mentally competent.

Ted Falk says what he finds most disappointing is that the Liberals broke an election promise to invest $3 billion in long term care, including palliative care.

"We know that the desire for physician assisted suicide is just about non-existent with proper palliative care," notes Falk. "And so had the Liberals kept that promise that they made, that election promise to invest the three billion dollars in long term and palliative care, it reduces the need for people asking for physician assisted suicide."

According to Falk, legislation was ordered by the Supreme Court of Canada. He notes the report that came out of the special committee was not as restrictive as the legislation that was presented Thursday. Falk says the legislation actually considers a lot of the information that came from the Dissenting Report, which included three Conservative Members of Parliament of the special joint committee. The Dissenting Report included more stringent safe guards to protect people that have mental health challenges and also to ensure minors were excluded.

"All those things were considered in the legislation and we're thankful for that because that wasn't in the special joint committee's report but it was in the Dissenting Report," shares Falk.

Falk says residents of Provencher have been very vocal about this and in fact he says his constituency office is receiving more correspondence on this topic than any other.

"They have indicated that they believe that life is precious and that they want me to strongly oppose any legislation that would open the door for physician assisted suicide," he says.

The legislation has been introduced and will be debated in the House of Commons before being sent to committee. The Supreme Court of Canada has given a June 6 deadline and Falk says he expects a decision will be made very quickly. Falk says he anticipates a whipped vote from the Liberals, noting Conservative MP's will have the freedom to vote with their constituents or consciences on the issue.

"That's something that I'm very pleased that our leadership has given us," says Falk. "Because I feel very strongly that life is precious and we need to respect that."

Falk says as Provencher's representative in Ottawa, he welcomes any feedback on the topic from constituents. Furthermore, he says this legislation will also probably be discussed by the justice committee he serves on. Falk says for constituents to communicate their concerns to the Minister of Justice or Prime Minister is also not a bad idea.