Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank my colleague opposite for this motion. I am very much aware of the situation concerning poor Athéna Gervais, who lost her life. And I take this opportunity to extend my condolences to her family.
No one wants to see another tragedy. In Quebec, the provincial government is taking action, and the federal government is as well. The Minister of Health has ordered Health Canada to look into the matter with her provincial and territorial colleagues. We are taking action.
I welcome the motion. I saw it last Friday, and it covers most of what needs to be done. Our committee is independent, and given that I would like to support the motion, with some amendments. I don't know if my colleague is ready to accept amendments, but personally I would like to propose a few. I would change certain words to highlight the urgency of the situation.
When I read the passage “That [...], the Committee undertake an emergency study”, I interpret that as meaning “immediately”.
We have another motion on the table, and it is probably, if not certainly, very important as well. However, we have a lot of files to study. Personally, I would change “an emergency study” to “urgently”. This would allow us to study this file within our deadlines—the motion proposes that a report be submitted at the latest by June 2018. This change would allow us enough time to hold the three two-hour meetings proposed in the motion to meet with witnesses.
Below that, I would add the word “combining” in order to bring the three elements of the sentence together, because otherwise the sentence is very vague. And so, I propose: “to better regulate pre-mixed drinks combining high alcohol, caffeine and sugar content”. We are talking about large containers with a lot of alcohol and sugar in them. Those are the amendments I propose.
If you accept these changes, I will support the motion.