Good afternoon.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. As mentioned, my name is Allan Rewak, and I am the executive director of Cannabis Canada, the national trade association for licensed producers of medical cannabis under the ACMPR.
Our group has recently undergone a very profound and positive transition. At our recent annual general meeting just three weeks ago, the members of the Cannabis Canada Association, the Canadian Medical Cannabis Council, and Canopy Growth Corporation agreed to unify to create one central stakeholder voice for our sector, which we will operate on a go-forward basis as the Cannabis Canada Council, or C3.
I'm very pleased to say that our strengthened and large organization can now confidently say that we represent the vast majority of licensed producers in this country, including the large-scale major producers, mid-scale producers, and emerging licensed producers. We believe this common and inclusive framework will be a significant asset to policy-makers such as you as you look towards the further regulation and design of our growing industry.
We are collectively committed to investing heavily in Canada and building up great jobs in the long term in the communities we operate in. This is something that we anticipate will escalate significantly once Bill C-45 comes into force and is fully implemented.
As part of this commitment to building up Canada, we are not opposed to the application of tax on adult consumer use of cannabis, despite the challenges a new taxation regime imposes on a nascent regime. We're proud to play our part.
That being said, our members, both large and small, are deeply concerned with the application of excise tax to medical cannabis as a sin tax. While we recognize and appreciate the very positive efforts of the federal government in seeking to exclude high-CBD, low-THC products from taxation, we believe the ratios offered in this budget are overly prescriptive and will work against our common interest of providing fair access to medicine for Canadians.
Instead, considering the fiscal risk of harm for legitimate medical patients—some of whom are here today—that the proposed taxation regime would entail, we propose that we instead adopt a collaborative and iterative approach to this issue. Specifically, C3 would recommend that all taxation on medical cannabis be deferred for a minimum of one year.
During that time, we would further propose that this committee recommend that Health Canada and aligned ministries create a working group to study appropriate age-gating and other gating mechanisms to the medical cannabis system to ensure that this system is free of abuse and to develop a more comprehensive evidence-based matrix of cannabis as treatment for specific medical disorders. We hope this new matrix will confidently and reasonably define a legitimate health care regime that ultimately will be tax free, just like other medicines.
We believe this approach will give us the information we need to get the medical system right while preserving and respecting the needs of medical patients.
In closing, I'd like to thank the committee again for the opportunity to be here. I'd be pleased to answer questions within a scope of information when available.