Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the government is calling this motion a compromise because they would be required to develop regulations in six months. This isn't a compromise. It is a bait and switch. This government is trying to bamboozle Members so that they don't really see what is going on. What is really going on is that this government's motion leaves all the power in the hands of the Minister to grant vendor licences to liquor stores only. That's the part that they don't want committee to change. I can't say it any plainer than that.
Six months, one year, two years, it doesn't matter when the government makes regulations because their motion says they will use the regs to "decide what is in the public interest." They have already done that. They think it is in the public interest to have cannabis sold only in liquor stores, but what they know is that this is the government's interest because almost all of the revenue will come to the government. Government may put regulations in place, but they don't have any obligation to use them.
I cannot support this motion because it gives too much discretion to the Minister to implement the sale model that is not consistent with what my constituents want, and, at the end of the day, that's what matters to me. Thank you, Mr. Chair.