Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, for the very strong contributions he made, both in the debate in the House and at committee. I also appreciate working with him.
With respect to those comments, I think that what I am saying is that “reasonably foreseeable” means, as the minister has stated, that someone is on the path toward their natural death.
What we heard at committee was if we used the word “imminent”, it means the death is going to happen within the next month, and I do not believe that it would be the best public policy approach to take such a restricted term, nor would it necessarily be charter-compliant, in my view.
I believe that while I personally would have been comfortable having a longer time frame, such as a year, in the bill, I also understand the reasons there is not that time frame. I am comfortable with the concept of “reasonably” in assisted death knowing that means that, based on someone's overall medical condition they are on that—