Madam Chair, as committee members are fully aware, the Department of Justice does scrutinize all bills brought forward by the government on a number of issues, including Parliament's power to enact the legislation, the constitutionality of the legislation, and this also includes Canada's international obligations.
In its presentation before you today, the bill is not a protectionist measure nor a discriminatory measure. In answering your question, I would have to point out, too, some process issues. The allegations of trade or trade discrimination would need to be treated under the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement and NAFTA obligations.
Canada clearly has an obligation to ensure that technical regulations are not prepared, adopted, or applied with the view to or with the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade. For this purpose, technical regulations shall not be more trade restrictive than necessary to fulfill a legitimate objective. And health measures are a legitimate objective.
What are some of the consequences here of violating Canada's obligation through WTO or TBT Agreement or NAFTA? It would engage one or both of the dispute settlement processes in the event of a challenge, the first one being state-to-state settlement procedures under which a party country challenges the measure it alleges is inconsistent with the applicable trade obligations.
Should the trade panel find that a violation has occurred, Canada would have to bring its laws and practices into conformity, or the other affected party, in other words an industry member, may ultimately suspend benefits provided to Canada by the applicable agreement. This, of course, may have serious and adverse consequences on the Canadian targeted industries. The second mechanism is the investor-state dispute settlement procedure under which an investor may claim damages resulting from the measure it alleges is inconsistent with the applicable trade obligations. Then a trade panel decision is binding, and it may award damages and applicable interest in restitution of property to an investor.
So given the importance of trade and trade agreements and Canada's obligations, the Department of Justice does scrutinize the bills for this reason.