Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Quebecois has been asking for a long time, through the hon. member for Drummond, that some prohibited practices be added to the Criminal Code.
The situation is as follows. If there were a void, as is the case at the moment—we might think of cloning for instance—and if those doing the cloning were not punishable under the Criminal Code, there would be very little deterrence. If we had a definite scheme and fines were provided for, it is quite possible that a large pharmaceutical company would not be deterred by the risk of being fined $50,000, compared to the profits to be obtained from research that led it to do cloning.
I believe that some practices must be prohibited under section 91.27 and that penalties must be provided for in the Criminal Code. However, the bill must not go any further. As for the rest, namely the regulatory agency, equivalency agreements and so on, they should not be legislated since provinces are responsible for offering services related to infertility through clinics, hospitals and local community service centres. These are public facilities funded mainly by the provinces.
This is why we ask that the bill be split. However, we believe that the 10 prohibited activities must be added to the Criminal Code.