Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, if I wasn't fooled into thinking this was a smokescreen before, that one sealed it. Look, if the Minister had said in a very clear, unambiguous way in this Chamber that the GNWT is going to open up the system to private sales in six months, I might have been fooled into believing this, but that's not what the Minister said. The Minister said they're going to develop regulations to define what the Minister thinks is the public interest. That's just not going to work here.
This is not a compromise. All this requires is that a regulation be developed within six months. It's not going to provide clarity. There's no requirement in this motion for private sales. All there is, is a requirement to develop a regulation that somehow is going to mysteriously define what is in the public interest.
You know what, the Minister has already decided what is in the public interest. The Minister has decided that it's not in the public interest to allow for private sales. The Minister has already decided that the public interest is served by selling cannabis through the liquor store system, and nothing in this amendment is going to change that. There's nothing in here that will stop that from continuing. I don't know what it's going to take to change the Minister's mind, quite frankly.
You know, it's going to be defined, the public interest is going to be defined, through some regulation? I've never heard of that before, never heard of it. So this is not transparent. It's not accountable, and this is worse than even the existing bill because I think it has the potential to create an expectation that there are going to be private sales in six months. That's not what is going to happen.
This is about the Minister developing some kind of a regulation in six months' time that defines what the public interest is. Meanwhile, the Minister can go ahead and start designating vendors right away. That's what the last part of this says: notwithstanding anything else, the Minister may designate a vendor before the regulations are even made. So who is that going to be? We already know. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I won't be supporting this.