Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This begins a different thread of my amendments. It stands on its own. It's worth passing—please.
It deals with where we are. If you go to page 46 of Bill S-5, under “Regulations”, you see clause 63. Currently Bill S-5 proposes to repeal the virtual elimination list and to repeal regulations adding perfluorooctane sulfonate and its salts. If you're wondering what that is—and I hope you've thought about it—it's basically Scotchgard. It also proposes to repeal the regulations that added this to the virtual elimination list.
We wouldn't need to do this if we kept the virtual elimination list and allowed my amendment. Now PV-24 would be “Minister of Health and the Minister of Environment may, by regulation, add a substance to the Virtual Elimination List.”
Then they can go forward and include other substances that we really need to see virtually eliminated, including, obviously, the named substances perfluorooctane sulfonate and its salts, but there will be others.
I urge the committee to rethink repealing the virtual elimination list. It's an important part of the scheme of legislation to deal with toxic substances.
Thank you.