Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Tobique—Mactaquac, particularly for his help in bringing me up to speed as a new member of his caucus.
He has identified a couple of critical things that were lacking in our intellectual property enforcement regime.
Trademark and intellectual property holders were asking for a registry and asking for assistance. I encountered instances in which the border officers would find a shipment that had personal care products in the container that were not indicated on the manifest, but even though there were brands on the personal care products, border officials and law enforcement were not able to notify the brand holder or conduct investigations to get to the root of where these products were going and which groups were distributing them across the country.
These requests and this registry that CBSA would run are exactly what industry and rights holders have been asking for. They will be a huge tool to combat this problem.