Mr. Speaker, the legislation that we have right now is 40 years old.
We are not able to get a good sense of what products in Canada have caused harm, because we do not have mandatory reporting of incidents by industry or by consumers.
This legislation would allow us to create a mechanism for receiving information to monitor what is occurring in our own jurisdiction. This mechanism would give us the information necessary to investigate possible incidents to determine whether a product is safe or not.
If it is determined that a product is unsafe, we would work with industry to remove that unsafe product from the market. As it is right now, industry lacks a mechanism for co-operating with us and we do not have the mandatory provisions required to remove unsafe products from the market.
Cadmium is an example that we recently dealt with. At present, all we can do is tell Canadians that cadmium is in the market. I think as parents and consumers we often make the assumption that the products on our shelves are safe. For me as a parent, it was really an eye-opener to find out that this is not always the case.
This legislation would modernize us. It would give us the ability to respond quickly, remove products from the market, and monitor incidents in Canada. I believe it is also in industry's interest to ensure that their products are safe. They will be able to do safety testing and will be allowed to share that information with us to determine what products are safe.
Once this bill is adopted, our legislation is going to be much improved.