Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Everyone will recall that the previous amendments to the Trade-marks Act, further to the last omnibus bill, faced strong opposition from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, as well as a large swath of Canada's private sector. It was quite a problem. Clearly, they were condemning a process that resulted in amendments that weren't necessarily in their best interest at the time or, at the very least, the fact that an in-depth study had not been done. The amendments before us could easily be detrimental to Canadian business.
A huge number of economic interests come into play when trademarks are involved. Significant amounts of money are at stake. Amending these provisions without first giving the committee directly responsible an opportunity to conduct a detailed study could very well end up costing us dearly. Above all, these changes could jeopardize the survival of countless businesses by putting them at a competitive disadvantage, especially small businesses.
In the new economy, holding a trademark without overly easy challenges from abroad is probably one of the biggest concerns of small businesses.
As in the case of the other acts being amended, I condemn the process. The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology should have had the opportunity to study the amendments from top to bottom. As was the case in the previous omnibus bills, our party's calls to split the legislation out into sections for further study were flatly rejected without serious consideration by the government. I just wanted to point that out.
Thank you.