Yes.
Evidence of meeting #24 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #24 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I was wondering if we could take that into account before we voted. Maybe you could explain the implications of it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Dr. Bennett, I don't want to rule it out of order. What I'd like to do is address it at report stage.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Thank you for this advice, because we have to deal with this issue.
We will not be voting on this today.
(Amendment withdrawn)
(Clause 30 agreed to)
Thank you.
Ms. Wasylycia-Leis, you have brought forth yet another amendment.
NDP
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
You have four more. So you don't intend to finish clause-by-clause today.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I'm looking at your first one. It's right in front of me.
It's new clause 67.1.
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Do you want to do that one first? Okay.
We drafted this in the hope that if we lost everything else, we might get this through the committee.
If what we're dealing with in terms of the labelling and listing of toxic substances is a problem from the point of view of budget, we don't want to lose what's in this bill just because the government might dig in its heels and say that we don't have the budget to do the amendments we would have gotten through.
Conservative
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
My point is that if that's the case, it surely means that the government is committed to moving forward in terms of identifying a labelling system and implementing it to deal with the whole question of listing and eliminating hazardous products. Therefore, this amendment is a way to keep that before Parliament, to hold the government to its commitment, to get regular reports on those two issues, to show how the international community is moving and how we're working in concert with the international community, and to show what we're doing to advance these very important issues.
Conservative
Assistant Deputy Minister, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Department of Health
We appreciate the member's proposal, Madam Chair, with respect to transparency. While the government supports transparency, the amendments as tabled present some problems. Most specifically, they impose certain obligations that again we are not resourced for with respect to a broad labelling system under this act. We would be using the general prohibition to use the labelling provisions in the act when appropriate and where appropriate and not to establish a broad labelling system. There are other efforts within government to do that, but specifically, under the act, that is problematic.
With respect to paragraph 67.1(b), it also creates new policy obligations with respect to the establishment of that list of hazardous substances, which was also dealt with earlier.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I think we understand the spirit of where Ms. Wasylycia-Leis is coming from. We have agreed to have an advisory committee, and I was wondering if we could have a commitment from the officials that maybe the first thing the advisory committee would do is look at this issue.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Department of Health
Madam Chair, if that were a recommendation, and an advisory committee were created and the bill supported, we could ensure that the first pieces of work the advisory committee was asked to deal with would be the issues of labelling and substances in products. They could provide recommendations back to the department and the minister.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I'm going to call the question.
(Amendment negatived)
Now we're going to go to the schedule.
On page 21 of the package we have another amendment to deal with.
Ms. Wasylycia-Leis, do you want to speak to this one, please, on schedule 1? Yes, we're now on the schedule.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
I have two on tobacco and one on noisy toys.
The one on tobacco is amendment NDP-3. It is an attempt to exempt existing and future tobacco products and to place tobacco on the same plane as other hazardous products listed in the schedule. That's it. That's what it does.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
It does something we've tried to do in other ways, which didn't work, so here I'm trying again.
