Certainly, that is my feeling. There were many concerns, and the amendments are supposed to remedy those concerns. I would feel better going back to the people who expressed the concerns to find out whether the amendments fix them.
I was also concerned to read the summary of sessions with stakeholders, and to see reiterated the difference between information sessions and consultation. A lot of the concerns that were raised by the witnesses are clearly here in the stakeholder summary, but they are not fixed in the bill. The response from the Public Health Agency of Canada said the legislation would provide clear definitions, but it doesn't. When people asked how they'd know whether their concerns were reflected in the bill, the Public Health Agency said this would come out in their consultation strategy.
Here it says that people who've been in the country for ten years won't be cleared. For all the laboratories, clearances should be good for five years. Students could perhaps work without a student security clearance if a supervisor were authorized.
As a legislator, I find it hard to trust that all this will be fixed in the regs. They tell us not to worry, that they'll fix it in the regs. We also have the situation with the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, where we specified that the regs would have to come back to this committee. We've only ever seen one chapter, and the whole thing has been on hold.
PHAC responds that there is no policy intention to capture non-pathogenic agents. If non-pathogenics are eventually captured, schedules could be changed by ministerial regulation. That is what everybody is hugely worried about. With respect to polio, they say it's not in the schedule, but, when banned worldwide like smallpox, it will go in schedule 5 of the bill. It's 2009. I don't understand how you can leave out polio.
I am asking the department what they have to say about Ms. Gibson's serious concerns. What's the hurry, and why can't we just get this right? Why can't we put what must be in the bill, in the bill? Why can't we send to regulations only those things that need to be flexible?