So I'll just lower my remarks and for the same reasons tell you why I don't think this clause makes a great deal of sense, whether it's in order or not. If somehow, through some magic, I managed to persuade my colleagues that it didn't make sense, perhaps they wouldn't vote for it.
The reason I think it doesn't make sense is because it authorizes the Governor in Council to make regulations generally for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this act. As nearly as I can see, there is only one section in the act that refers to the need for regulations, and that's clause 26, which just passed, which seems to suggest that there might be some regulations prescribed about how the Auditor General shall examine other regulations--or rather the commissioner. There's no guidance given. There is no specificity given as to precisely what the regulations are that are contemplated.
I'm reminded of my good friend Derek Lee, from the Liberal Party, who I observed raised this point on occasion in the justice committee, that this seems to give the Governor in Council, i.e., the cabinet, wide-open scope to make whatever regulations the Governor in Council would like to make.
Ordinarily, we would call this a basket clause and we would stick it at the end of a list of regulations that would be contemplated by the act. It would be a basket clause, meaning that this is sort of to catch anything that's already been missed. That only really works well if it's at the end of a list of things the Governor in Council might regulate on, whether it's the time periods for notice, or the proper forms for lawsuits, or whatever it may be. But in this case, we don't have any specificity whatsoever.
If there was a list, there is a legal principle that says that a basket clause like this should be interpreted in accordance with the nature of the items that are specified in the list. The lawyers around the table might remind me of the Latin for that; it escapes me right now. Without any specificity preceding it, there is no way to know what kinds of regulations the Governor in Council might wish to make.
I suppose since there's a Conservative government in office right now, I wouldn't be too worried if the Conservative government wanted to make some regulations that might drastically affect the implementation of this act. But as I can't discount the possibility that in some hopefully very distant future there might be a government of another persuasion, I am concerned about giving the Governor in Council such a wide-open, unspecified authority to make regulations as is found in this proposal.
Those are my comments. Thank you.