I understand the government's objective. However, we still must read the essence of section 5.392 that says:
...any information disclosed under the process that comes into the Minister's possession is confidential, and the Minister shall not disclose it or make it available except in the following circumstances:
I do want the employees to be protected, but right now we are protecting the minister. He will be the one to decide whether or not something is confidential. I have a problem with this. If we want to get the details of an accident, the minister, because of this section, could decide that the documents are confidential. We mean documents that are in his possession and not information that is circulating within the company. These documents are in the minister's possession, and the minister could decide that they are confidential and cannot be published.
I am very reluctant to give such a power to the minister. I tabled my amendment, and you will discuss it. However, I have a problem with the fact that the minister could hide information or decide that it is confidential. I am not specifically targeting the Conservative government, I am talking about any future government including future Liberal or NDP governments, if that ever came about.