Thank you.
I appreciate the chance to take the floor again, Mr. Chair, since I'm not a member of the committee but have to bring my amendments here.
First of all, I don't agree that it's more appropriate to put a definition of diversity in the regulations. I think it should be part of the bill. The language that's used in all three of the proposed amendments—but mine is the one on the floor right now—is inclusive, “including”. It's not prescriptive. The use of the word “including” is to have an indicative list to turn the minds of people looking at diversity to what we have in mind.
In looking at the three, the only words found in the NDP and Conservative motions that aren't in mine are age, which is in both the NDP and the Conservative motion, and the Conservative motion includes religion and socioeconomic status. I would certainly regard it—although I'm not the mover of this, it's deemed moved—as friendly to insert the words “age”, “religion”, and “socioeconomic status” into PV-5 to have one diversity definition that's inclusive of what all parties have put forward here.
My difficulty is that I'm not allowed to move a friendly amendment to my own amendment, but as long as none of.... The language that is more explicit in mine than in anyone else's amendment is related to sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. Those are very important and subtle concepts that I would want to ensure weren't lost, but I have absolutely no objection to including age, religion, and socioeconomic status in this indicative list of diversity elements.