Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly do appreciate when the NDP brings forward suggestions; however, unfortunately this is a redundant proposal, as we heard clearly from officials from both Health Canada and Environment Canada. The departments themselves do individual consultations by first putting forward regulatory plans and then meeting with interested stakeholders who are going to be affected.
As part of the prepublication of any amendments, there is a RIAS, which is a regulatory impact analysis statement, which basically covers in layman's terms what is being changed and the rationale. It also includes a 60-day consultation phase. The Canada Gazette process has been around since the 19th century. The consultation phase is one of our finest institutions, where anyone interested from any background can submit.
For us to be providing an opportunity to make representations, to be adding some sort of parallel system that is not defined, will actually draw away from the current system. If the NDP had suggestions on how to improve the Canada Gazette process, which would be outside the scope of this bill, I would certainly be happy to hear them.
With that, Mr. Chair, I personally would not recommend that members of this committee support this because it's ill-defined and at best, redundant.