Madam Speaker, this very issue was brought up in committee. There was concern with some of the researchers who were working with these pathogens and toxins. As the member would know, even though researchers working in laboratories take the utmost precautions, spills can occasionally happen.
The intent of this legislation is not to force laboratories and workers to report what we would call usual spills in conducting their research but if there are inadvertent releases from the laboratory into the public domain. The idea of this legislation is to improve biosafety and biosecurity in Canada. There is still a very strong concern that these pathogens and toxins will not be released to the general public and will not cause a concern to our health and safety in Canada.
This was something put forward by the government and that all opposition parties were in agreement with. We were happy to clarify that wording because that definitely is the intent.