Justice Committee on Feb. 16th, 2017

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Yes.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Every business does administrative activities. That's a very broad term. So if something is done that is motivated by those biases, is that net capturing those private businesses?

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

No, that was not the intent of the bill. It was only for—

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

But do you have concerns, because that definition of “administrative”—

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

I know; I understand that.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Right? Yes.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

It was not the intent of the bill to cover this.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

It was not the intention to do that. Okay.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Mr. McKinnon.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I have one more question about scope. I understand here from proposed paragraph (c) that a building or structure for all of these purposes, or things associated with that structure, presumably on the grounds, would be covered. So if you had a public park with a camp shelter for barbecues and so forth, then all the benches and basically everything else in the park would be covered. But if you had a public park that had no such structure, nothing would be covered. Is that how you would read this?

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Interesting. I think that is not covered in the bill as I see it.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Okay. So it needs to be tied to a building or a structure in order to activate—

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

To activate the increased penalty.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Yes, the increased penalty.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

If you commit a crime, it's still a crime.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Excellent.

I think that was a really interesting and excellent exchange. I want to thank Mr. Arya for coming before us today. Thank you so much for your excellent presentation, and we look forward to studying the bill you have proposed.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, all.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you, everyone.

The meeting is adjourned.