Madam Chair, Justice has looked at this issue of moving tobacco to schedule 1. It has formed the view that Parliament has enacted valid legislation with respect to tobacco. Tobacco use is a unique social and health problem that the Tobacco Act does address. It was developed for that purpose.
In particular, the Tobacco Act has been subject to many constitutional challenges, the latest decision coming out of the Supreme Court of Canada on June 28, 2007. We now know that the tobacco legislation is a constitutionally valid piece of legislation.
So the prospect of regulating tobacco under the CCPSA has the potential of revisiting the balance that has been struck between Parliament's objectives and the charter. The government has sought, in subclause 4(2), to avoid revisiting this issue under this piece of legislation. It is provided for directly in the statute for some secondary reasons as well.
The CCPSA applies only to a single characteristic of tobacco products, and that is their ignition propensity. This has been dealt with in subclause 4(2) for two reasons--one, to respond in an open and transparent manner to comments made by the Standing Joint Committee on the Scrutiny of Regulations, and then to maintain the integrity of the schedule, which exempts entire products and not only the characteristic of a product.
Thank you.