Mr. Chairman, what I see being attempted here, with all due respect, is to suggest that the principle of section 35 can be replaced by a long recitation of some of the practicalities of application, which is the place for regulations, not for legislation. The principle should stand as it stood in the first three lines of section 35—only three lines.
I also want to quickly say, Mr. Chairman, that there's a significant distinction between the use of the term “serious harm” in the proposed legislation and the term “No person shall carry on any work...that results in harmful alteration, disruption or destruction...”. “Serious harm”, under the definitions of Bill C-38, is that you have to kill fish before you've done serious harm. I think that's long after the barn door has been left open and all the cattle have got out.
Further to that, we're giving the minister such broad powers of stepping away from the provisions of the principle of the act, which is a protective principle, not a permissive principle. What this act is proposing is to take away the protective nature of the Fisheries Act—in particular, section 35—and replace it by a whole bunch of permissive loopholes, which I object to.