Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate all members of the committee asking me here, but I do like to place on the record every time that this is not an opportunity I actually welcome. I regard it as coercive and I much prefer the rights that I have under our normal procedures to be able to make amendments at report stage, as opposed to operating under the motions that were passed first under the previous government, and now again in every committee.
That said, I want to say how critical this piece of legislation is. My amendment is inspired by some testimony that the committee has heard and is very similar to some of the others that are before you today.
I want to pause for a moment and just share with committee members that one of my constituents, Leslie McBain, is a founder of Moms Stop the Harm. We know that this legislation is critical to help avoid deaths such as the tragic loss of her son.
The substance of my amendment deals with the criteria currently found in the bill at page 44. The overriding section is proposed subsection 56.1(2) under clause 42. This is certainly a big improvement in Bill C-37 over the current legislation, which had conditions (a) to (z), and then even (z.1). I opposed those when they went through the House the first time. They were extremely onerous and were clearly designed to stop harm reduction facilities from being opened in communities.
However, as the brief from Pivot points out, the conditions and criteria that are required under the current Bill C-37 are still onerous. I'll quote from their testimony to the committee:
Streamlining the criteria will decrease delay and improve access to life-saving facilities for communities in need. Most importantly, it would remove the onus currently placed on minimally-resourced applicants that are, especially at this time, over-burdened and channelling all available resources into emergency measures to save lives.
The amendment you find from the Parti vert, amendment PV-1, is based on the Pivot advice. It compresses the criteria existing now in proposed paragraphs 56.1(2)(a) to (e) and simplifies them to this one:
shall include information related to the local conditions indicating a need for the site, submitted in the form and manner determined by the Minister.
Then in proposed subsection 56.1(2.1), it would read:
The Minister may require that an application for exemption under subsection (1) include information related to the regulatory structure in place....
It's a common sense measure to reduce the burdens and the hurdles in getting these life-saving facilities up and running.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Happy birthday to Mr. Oliver. I very much enjoy his comedy show. I just don't know why he doesn't look the same here as he does on TV, but that's okay.