Yes, I was going to elaborate on taking the word “evidence” out. We shouldn't lose the fact that what we're talking about here is an exemption for an illegal activity. We're not talking about Kool-Aid that people are putting into their veins at a consumption site. These are street drugs, purchased illegally from somebody with a nefarious background in many cases. It could be kerosene, for heaven's sake, that they're putting into their arms.
When the minister is deciding whether an exemption should be given to allow these illegal activities to take place, the word “evidence” is much stronger than just “information”. I think we should be taking this extremely seriously.
There are downsides to these sites. If you look at the evidence that we've heard.... We've had police state that there are a lot of offences—thefts, crimes to get the drugs—committed by these addicts, who usually aren't people of means, and they need to get the money somewhere.
I'm really concerned. Just to continue what my colleague Mr. Webber was saying, the government is saying that it is going to be a government of consultation, but we're moving to get rid of a lot of that consultation for these particular sites.
I know that on another committee, for Canada Post, the Liberal government is saying that they're going to give the veto to a municipality about where they put a mailbox, but they're not giving a veto or even mandatory information from a municipality or a community to give input on where an injection site is. These sites have significant criminal activity that goes with them.
Our current Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice is on the record as saying that when he was a police officer, there was no area in Toronto where this would not have negative effects.
I think that weakening the language in this bill is the wrong way to go. As I said, we're in favour of making sure that the consultation process is vigorous, and I think we should take into account what our colleagues from Health Canada said in response to Ms. Harder. They have tried to make the language consistent.