The Standing Committee on Justice Policy held Committee on the omnibus Ontario bill, Bill 174, An Act to enact the Cannabis Act, 2017, the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation Act, 2017 and the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017, to repeal two Acts and to make amendments to the Highway Traffic Act respecting alcohol, drugs and other matters on November 29th and 30th.
Many presenters covering the wide range of topics within this bill were heard. The transcripts for those meetings are not yet available as of this posting, but should be published on their website soon ( Transcript Index: en | fr ).
### UPDATE – December 9th: Transcripts for these sessions were posted on December 8th.
Scheduled presenters for November 29th:
The online transcript (downloaded are below) can be found here: en | fr
- Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division
Uppala Chandrasekera, Director, Public Policy
Jean Hopkins, Policy Analyst
Camille Quenneville, Chief Executive Officer - Ashutosh Jha
- Canadian Vaping Association (CVA)
Marc Kealey - Cannabis Culture
Jodie Emery
Marc Emery - Canadian Automobile Association (CAA)
Elliott Silverstein - Maria Papaioannoy
- Marion C Burt
- Arrive Alive Driver Sober
Michael Stewart, Program Director
Scheduled presenters for the first session on November 30th:
The online transcript (downloaded are below) can be found here: en | fr
- Canada’s Family Business Association
Abi Hod, Director - Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco
Michael Perley, Director - Association of Municipalities of Ontario
Lynn Dollin, President - Craig Reid
- Canadian Cancer Society, Ontario Provincial Office
Odane Finnegan, Senior Coordinator, Public Issues - Bike Law Canada (Coalition member of Vulnerable Road User Laws)
Patrick Brown, President - Friends and Families for Safe Streets
Kasia Briegmann-Samson, Spokesperson - The Schizophrenia Society of Ontario (SSO)
Erin Boudreau, Manager of Policy and Community Engagement - The Electronic Cigarette Trade Association of Canada
Daniel David, Chair - The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO)
Lisa Levin, Director of Nursing and Health Policy - Higher Limits Cannabis Lounge
Jon Liedtke, Proprietor - Ontario Medical Association
Shawn Whatley, President - Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at University of Toronto
Robert Schwartz, PhD - Ontario Pharmacists Association
Andrew Gall
Allan Malek - Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA)
Pegeen Walsh, Executive Director - Ontario Public School Boards’ Association
Laurie French, President
Rusty Hick, Executive Director - Rowan WarrHunter
- Too Far Too Fast
Brian Patterson
Robyn Robertson, CEO of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation - Shaun McQueen
- Alan Wayne Scott
- Clinton Laderoute / David Sweanor
- Albert Koehl
Now the Committee has the following deadlines:
- The Standing Committee on Justice Policy will hold 3 sessions for public hearing (1 on November 29, 2017, 2 on November 30, 2017) – DONE
- Written submissions must be received by the Clerk by November 30th at 6p Eastern.
- Amendments must be filed with the Clerk by December 4th at 2p Eastern.
- Clause-by-clause will be completed on December 7th by 10p Eastern.
- Final report to the House will be no later than December 11th or the report will be deemed passed.
As you can see, that is a LOT a people covering a lot of topics with a very small number of meeting sessions and very little time. The ECTA has always been in favour of fair and reasonable regulation, it is what we do and is the foundation upon which we were formed. However, we are opposed to the process that the Liberal Government has enacted to rush this bill to Royal Assent.
Just as do the other Schedules within this bill, Schedule 3 deserves its own FULL debate, discussion and committee proceedings or what we will end up with is a significant number of unintended consequences that will affect the people of Ontario, up to and including potential avoidable death.
Obviously ECTA’s presentation to the Committee was on Schedule 3, the Smoke Free Ontario Act, 2017 and our recorded presentation and submission are below:
Downloaded Transcript (December 9th) of November 29th
[pdf-embedder url=”http://ectaofcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2017/12/29-NOV-2017_JP025.pdf” download=”on”]
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