Thank you very much.
Good day, Mr. Chair and all members of the committee. Thank you for hearing us today.
It's undeniable for the Quebec bar that strict labelling rules will be necessary to reach the goals. There are three main goals of information, prevention, and also in many cases and especially in the cases of young people, either below 18 or below 25, dissuasion. These strict labelling rules must be set up to govern the legal framework related to cannabis, just as is being done with alcohol, and just as is being done with tobacco.
To this extent Bill C-45 provides right now for neutral packaging, what we can identify as being neutral packaging, but there are not too many details being provided at this point to inform us on what the specific conditions will be for marketing and commercialization of cannabis. We feel there is a need for strict national standards that must be established by the federal government, either by amending Bill C-45 or probably by way of bylaws and regulations that will provide us, again, with a similar framework as we're seeing right now with the tobacco legislation warnings and descriptions of contents.
We see there are already, at paragraphs 139(1)(o) and 139(1)(k), provisions in the act that provide for the establishment of regulations with respect to the strength of the cannabis that will be put on the market.
There is nothing right now concerning comestible cannabis, either ingestible food or beverages. The bill right now authorizes the provincial legislatures to regulate the distribution and sale of cannabis, but the list provided at clause 69 of the bill right now is, in our opinion, not exhaustive enough and not detailed enough to give clear indications to the provinces with respect to the framework that must surround the commercialization of cannabis. This can lead to some confusion as to what the provinces must respect when they will table or when they presently are tabling bills governing the commercialization and marketing of cannabis. All this is in a context, of course, of protecting the consumers and also protecting the producers.
Thank you.