We just voted on clauses 45 and 46 that were about taxing cigarettes, which we know are very harmful to people's health. When you read the literature concerning les spiritueux, the absolute ethanol alcohol, or spirits, you find, when you deal with the court system, that in some places 95% of people are in the court system because of their relationship with alcohol. It has a huge impact on many communities. We pass many laws in the criminal justice system in order to deal with the problems related to that. I know it's not the fault of the spirits makers, manufacturers, or whatever name we give to them—sorry; I'm not familiar with the industry too much in the sense that I'm not a manufacturer of spirits or ethanol alcohol—but it does have an impact.
We have to think about that impact and how to curb it in some way. If we make it too inexpensive, people will abuse it. When they abuse it, they end up in the court system, and then we end up with many other problems that we're trying to deal with here in Parliament day in and day out and even in my community.
For me, I support this measure. I just can't support this industry in the way that you on the opposition side would like. I respect that, but it's just not something I believe we should encourage wholeheartedly. I think we have to take a bit more of a circumspect view of it.
Thank you.