Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this motion was actually floated by the government earlier this week, and, quite frankly, it was "a compromise alternative to the committee's motion that was just defeated."
Mr. Chair, this is not a compromise, in my mind. This is a tactic by the government designed to undermine the work of the standing committees. As we have just seen by the defeat of the previous motion, the tactic appears to have worked. I want to be perfectly clear about the effect of this motion, Mr. Chair. The motion requires the Minister to bring in regulations within six months "prescribing criteria to guide the Minister in considering whether the designation of a person as a vendor is in the public interest."
The government seems to have convinced some Members that this six-month timeline is a compromise over the two-year period the government first said it would adhere to when Bill 6 was introduced. What was apparently not made clear was that, while the committee's motion would have obligated the Minister to give fair consideration to all vendor applications that meet the prescribed criteria, this motion gives the Minister full discretion in determining whether or not a vendor designation is in the public interest. If the Minister determines that it is in the public interest only to designate liquor store vendors to sell cannabis, and that it is not in the public interest to designate private vendors, then, even with prescribed criteria in place within six months, there is still no obligation on the GNWT to open up the sales of cannabis beyond liquor stores. A tactic, Mr. Chair, not a compromise.
I will not be supporting this motion, which makes little meaningful improvement over the original subsection in Bill 6. Again, I am deeply disappointed that it does not have the effect of bringing an end to the government's plan to sell cannabis only through liquor stores at the outset of legalization, and I intend to work hard to push this government to move in that direction as quickly as possible. Those are my comments. I will not be in support. Thank you, Mr. Chair.