Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I apologize for being late. The votes have changed the schedule for us.
What we sought from the clerk was clarification around the exact wording of the amendment. As I mentioned at our Monday meeting, there were some problems with it. There were two elements. One was the mention of the paragraph and what was actually being deleted. What we confirmed with the drafter was that the intention was to use it as a preamble for that section so that no paragraph would be deleted.
Secondly, there was an inconsistency between the French version and the English version, which we've run into on other occasions, where the French version
very clearly states "that meets the highest safety standards", and
in the English version, from the amendment we talked about on Monday, it talked about the high safety standards established.
The French version is the correct one.
You will see that the wording around “established” is no longer in the English translation of the French term.
Those are the two clarifications.
I appreciate the work of the drafting clerk. The individual apologized, and I can understand because they were working under a great deal of pressure with a lot of amendments.
I'm glad they've added this clarification around the intention of NDP-3.1. Given the discussions we've had around the Bloc amendment, it meets with what we are all attempting to achieve, which is making the highest possible safety standards part and parcel of this bill. I would hope that we have support from all four parties around the table for that.