Thank you, Madam Chair.
We just heard from the departmental lawyers about having certainty, because we're dealing with Criminal Code provisions, and about the concern around “should”. Who determines what “should” is? Now we're saying “must”, but then we're adding in a kind of wiggle room with “when appropriate”, so the same people who would be determining “should” are now determining “when appropriate”.
Who decides what “when appropriate” is? Who decides “should”? I think we're completely back at square one with this. I would propose—I don't know what we're concerned with here—to just say that the Minister “must consult” and to leave out the “when appropriate” because it leaves this open to uncertainty, and we can't have that, I believe, when we're dealing with something this serious and when we're dealing with provisions that are dealing with assisted dying. Who's going to make that determination? The same person who would be making the determination of whether they “should” consult is now going to be making the determination that they “must” consult but “when appropriate”.
In my mind, there's no difference between those two things. To me, it would be a lot more certain and clear, and we'd be doing everyone a great service, to just say that the minister “must consult”.