Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd just like to advise the committee that I will be voting against all of the proposed amendments by the NDP and the Liberals, but I will only state my objections once, for the record.
The purpose of this bill is to replace four mandatory requirements for the minister with 12 or 13 discretionary considerations for the minister to consider if he or she deems those considerations relevant. Almost all--or perhaps all--of these proposed amendments remove ministerial discretion and make the 12 or 13 or 14 considerations mandatory. I would suggest to the committee that the proposed amendments are completely negative to the intent of the bill as referred to the committee by the House.
However, as the chair has ruled the first amendment in order, I suspect that a similar ruling would be forthcoming with respect to the rest of the amendments. But I believe that all of these amendments defeat the initial purpose of the bill, which was to give the minister discretion with respect to 12 or 13 factors. The amendments clearly are trying to remove that discretion and I'll be voting against each and every one.
With those objections on the record, I will defer back to the chair.