Mr. Chair, the proposal here was being made because in each of the grants related to the Governor in Council, the language is being modernized and made consistent. So you'll see this in each grant of power to the GIC to make regulations. That's all that was being changed here.
This is in fact a fairly old provision. It was put in so that Canada could implement its commitments under NAFTA and TRIPS. It's really worth mentioning because there is a concern or appears to be a concern that somehow trade would trump safety. Those commitments don't require that. I think some of the observations that Mr. Herder made are very important in this respect.
So what 39 of TRIPS and 1711 of NAFTA require is not that there be non-disclosure of information that's safety related. In fact, it does permit disclosure of safety-related information, but it's in such a way that it prevents unfair competition. The idea is that if a manufacturer has to do clinical studies and invest a lot of money and then hand all of that information, which it wouldn't normally disclose to competitors, to a government, the government can't turn around and give it to a competitor right away so that the competitor gets market access without doing that work.
This section was used in 2006 to implement data protection, which was not designed to prevent disclosure of information by the minister, it just creates a situation where generic companies can't file for a period of six years to copy a brand drug. Again, it would not impede upon the minister's ability to disclose information, it just goes to the unfair competition part.