Briefly, Mr. Chair, on division 19, these clauses, as we understand them, would grant the Minister of Health the power to exempt products from the regulatory process, and we have concerns about the potential impact of this change. Again, you have to ask why this would be before the finance committee, as opposed to the health committee or some other committee, industry perhaps, but here it is before finance.
We think at a minimum the public should know when there is an exemption and when a product has been exempted by the minister rather than going through the full regulatory process. We're concerned that this is one more example where power is being shifted from a regulatory process with clear rules into the hands of one specific minister who has the power to skirt the rules for commercial interest.
So we will not be supporting this change.