Murray Rankin: Mr. Speaker, I congratulate and thank my friend and neighbour from Saanich—Gulf Islands for her excellent presentation and for her hard work on the bill.
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During her speech she alluded to certain amendments that might be brought forward at committee stage, and I wonder if she could advise this House as to the kind of amendments she would consider acceptable.
Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, it is helpful to perhaps give a prelude. I do not assume anything. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the bill get through second reading and to committee.
The Minister of Health has been very forthcoming in sharing with me some of the things she thinks would make the bill easier from her point of view, and obviously I want to do everything possible to be reasonable and bend over backwards to make sure we can accept any amendments.
The kinds of things that have been suggested are really sensible. I do not want the bill to create, for instance, any federal or provincial jurisdictional conflict. It has been suggested that we would change the terms around “standard of care” to “best practices”, to change the words “national strategy” to “federal framework”, and to give the Minister of Health in the current version of the bill six months form when the bill enters into force to hold a conference, or perhaps make that longer to ensure that federal-provincial processes are respected. It could go to perhaps 12 months.
None of those things strike me as anything other than helpful, and I certainly look forward to getting the bill to committee so those amendments can be made.