Legalize, did you say?
Evidence of meeting #18 for Justice and Human Rights in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
Evidence of meeting #18 for Justice and Human Rights in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
6:50 p.m.
Mayor of the Corporation of Delta; Chair of the Board of Directors, Mayors' Committee, Metro Vancouver
Legalize, did you say?
6:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Fast
Legalize.
I want to know from you, as municipal representatives here, chambers of commerce, criminologists, are you in favour of legalizing any of those drugs?
6:50 p.m.
Mayor of the Corporation of Delta; Chair of the Board of Directors, Mayors' Committee, Metro Vancouver
Absolutely not.
6:55 p.m.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Research Chair and Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Research, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University College of the Fraser Valley, As an Individual
There's no doubt that would be an absolutely stupid thing to do, for a number of reasons.
6:55 p.m.
Manager, Policy Development and Communications, Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce
You know, we have started looking at it, and, in consultation with our police force, it's not something that they would want to see happen in our region.
6:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Fast
All right. Well, it appears there's consensus there.
Thank you so much.
Yes, quickly.
6:55 p.m.
Mayor of the Corporation of Delta; Chair of the Board of Directors, Mayors' Committee, Metro Vancouver
I have one question, if I could, Mr. Chair.
I understand you're going to be wrapping up and putting a paper together, a position paper. Is there a possibility, if we get our paper together, that we can forward that to you?
6:55 p.m.
Mayor of the Corporation of Delta; Chair of the Board of Directors, Mayors' Committee, Metro Vancouver
I'm wondering what your deadline would be for that.
6:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Fast
Quite a ways down the road. My guess is we won't even be able to provide instructions for a report until well into the fall. That's my guess, because we have other bills that we have to review.
This is probably going to be well into the fall before we do this, so you've got time. Any written submissions you want to make that supplement what you've said today, please get it to our clerk, Miriam Burke. We'll get it translated and out to our members.
6:55 p.m.
Mayor of the Corporation of Delta; Chair of the Board of Directors, Mayors' Committee, Metro Vancouver
Thank you.
Mayor Watts, Mayor Robertson, Mayor Fassbender, Mayor Corrigan from Burnaby, and I are undertaking all of this work and we're hoping to have it completed so that all of the mayors in the region can approve what we're going to be sending to you. It will hopefully be a document that you will be able to use, and we hope you can carry on with that.
6:55 p.m.
Mayor, City of Langley
I would just make one other quick point, because of the back and forth, the issues, and one of the comments that was made.
I would urge the members of the government on both sides of the House to encourage changes to existing regulations that are easy and fast to do, because we know how long it takes for legislation. I have a problem with that myself, but that's reality. But look at the things that you can do in the short term that at least start to give us the tools that can start to make a difference in our communities.
The difference between us and what you're dealing with is if we see a problem, we go out, roll up our sleeves, and fix it. And we fix it tomorrow. Our police departments, our fire chiefs, everyone says we're going to get this problem fixed and we're going to do it in a hurry. I believe there are even small steps that could be taken in the short term to change regulations or some of those other things that could start to make a difference while the legislation is being reviewed and changed. And that's what we're also asking for. Let's do the things we can do quickly now, and let's do the big-picture issues as we move forward.
6:55 p.m.
Mayor of the Corporation of Delta; Chair of the Board of Directors, Mayors' Committee, Metro Vancouver
As long as you're here to help—