Thank you very much, Chair.
I'm not going to take too long. I have no intent of belabouring this debate, but there are a few important issues that came up that are important to address.
What I've been hearing clearly from the officials is that we cannot use other laws on precursors since this is a health product. In other cases, we would have to take the product off the shelves and regulate it as a controlled substance.
In the current context, this problem doesn't exist because we have Vanessa's Law. This gap only comes into play because of the bill that Mr. Calkins has presented. Otherwise, there's no issue because we do have a law on the books that gives Health Canada the appropriate authority to deal with this matter.
Now we find ourselves at a juncture with the amendments that are being suggested by Mr. Thériault that create that gap. The purpose behind the subamendment that I have proposed is to narrow that gap so that we don't run into it. It's a remedial step that I'm taking.
I'd rather not have Bill C-368, as we've stated before, because we think it's a bad law. It creates precisely the kind of issues that we are trying to address now by way of a band-aid mechanism.
Now, Mr. Ellis loves to throw insults left, right and centre at all of his colleagues without any parliamentary respect. He's entitled to do whatever. He'll be judged by them or his loved ones on the manner in which he treats them. I won't stoop to his level.
He often talks about lack of preparation. Perhaps he should have done his homework. The interim order he says is not available is on Health Canada's website. He can find it. He can read it. It has lots of footnotes. I've read it. I don't know why he did not do his homework, but I leave it to him as to how he manages his time.
I'll just put this on the record. In the interim order it says:
Canadian law enforcement agencies have brought to Health Canada’s attention that they have found single-ingredient ephedrine NHPs, in particular authorized 8 mg ephedrine formulations, in clandestine laboratories that manufacture methamphetamine.
That information is available.
To Mr. Thériault, I'm not trying to be too cute by half here or trying to do a run-in. I'm merely trying to strengthen his amendment.
If Mr. Julian had not withdrawn his amendment, NDP-1, this problem would not exist, because that had actually managed that particular gap. Now that is gone. That's why I'm forced to present this subamendment for consideration, so that we can further bolster and strengthen Mr. Thériault's amendment.