Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am going to start out a little something here personally. People realize I personally did not support the legalization of cannabis. I would have liked to have seen the legalization process adjourned for at least another year. We heard that in the communities to get it done right. Unfortunately, this was brought by the federal government, and we needed to get it done right, as I said before.

I am one of the MLAs who represent small communities. I want to make that very clear. There are six communities in my riding, five small communities and one regional centre.

Mr. Chair, yesterday, I spoke about the consultation that the committee undertook, and what we learned on our travels. It is our jobs as Regular MLAs to listen to what the people are saying, and to come back and find ways to make amendments to the bill that will make it better based on what we want, what the people want. I take the job very seriously, and I also take my role as the Chair of the Standing Committee of Social Development very seriously. The committee system is a system of teamwork. It is not always easy to work on a team. You have to listen to the input of your colleagues. We have had to make compromises and trade-offs that respect the needs of other Members and their ridings while still being true to the needs of your own constituents.

The joint standing committees worked very hard on the bill to improve Bill 6. In total, there were 22 motions to amend the bill. Nine of these were government motions, and two were made by an individual Member. The remaining 11 were motions of the joint committee. Government concurred with all but two of the committee's motions. These are the motions we will be considering today, and I will speak to each in more detail at the right time.

For now, I want to say that the committee's motions to amend the bill were carefully considered. They were debated and discussed. We reached agreement, and we supplemented the motions to change the bill with a series of policy recommendations. I am proud of the work we did as a joint committee, which is reflected in our committee report, and I stand behind it. I believe this truly reflects what the people of my riding said about Bill 6.

I am aware that some of my colleagues of the joint committee may not be prepared to support the motions. This is deeply concerning for me, or disappointing for me. Personally, it is disappointing for me; however, I am aware that ordinary MLAs get a lot of pressure from outside this House, which sometimes changes what is happening. As I have heard, this is the reality of consensus government, and we have to respect it. We have worked hard, and we worked in good faith. We compromised to reach agreement on a way forward. Like I said, the committee worked as a team. I sincerely hope those who worked with me on the review of Bill 6 and who may now be thinking about not supporting the work of the committee will reconsider their position and support the work that we have collaborated to achieve. Thank you, Mr. Chair.