Thank you, honourable ministers, for your presentations this afternoon. I know that all honourable members appreciate your attendance.
The legislation, in my opinion, contains some very good provisions, but there are some areas I do have some concerns about.
One of the areas I have some concern about is the safeguards for persons with underlying mental health challenges. As the legislation currently stands, two nurse practitioners or two physicians could determine whether or not a patient meets the criteria for access to physician-assisted dying.
One of the issues we heard about at the special joint committee was that physicians may be able to diagnose underlying mental health challenges. To take the next step of determining capacity to consent for persons with underlying mental health challenges, there was some evidence that someone more specialized, such as a psychiatrist, might be involved.
I was wondering why a safeguard along those lines was not included in the legislation and what your comments are.