Mr. Chair, I have submitted a subamendment to this amendment to the clerk, so I'll give the signal for that to start being distributed to committee members.
Before I read the subamendment, I want to address the arguments that Mr. Naqvi made.
We have checked with legislative counsel and the original drafters. In their response, they said paragraph 2(2)(g) “is drafted such that the government would not be legally bound to providing financial support. The bill provides that the Minister of Health must develop a strategy that sets out measures designed to provide financial support. It's akin to requiring the minister to make a plan to do X, but not making the minister actually do X. If there was such a binding requirement on the government to fund, the legislative clerks would have concluded that the bill required a royal recommendation.” For that reason, my subamendment....
Before I move to the subamendment, I agree with the concerns that were raised about naming Brain Injury Canada. Therefore, in the subamendment I submitted to the clerk, I am simply moving that we delete both (a) and (b) in amendment G-2, and then (c) would be replaced with language that says “develop, publish and maintain online resources providing current facts, research and best practices related to brain injuries; and”. “Maintain” is the key change.
I'm essentially moving to remove two-thirds of the amendment in G-2, but keeping the change identified in (c).
I'll conclude there, Mr. Chair.