Bill No. 108 - Cannabis Control Act - Second Reading
MS. CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I'll keep my remarks brief this evening, I know many of my colleagues are waiting to speak.
To begin, we're happy to have a piece of legislation before us. We knew that this was coming, we've been waiting. It is, as the minister said, a very comprehensive bill. I would echo some of the comments we heard about the magnitude of the task before us and the shortness of the time, although the goalposts keep moving on that one.
We continue to have questions to that end about implementation. One of the places where we've been zeroing in on those questions in the Budget Estimates process is costs. So despite questions in Question Period, in Budget Estimates, with the Minister of Justice, with the Minister Responsible for the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, we have yet to see any hard costs associated with this.
As representatives of the taxpayers of Nova Scotia, I think we deserve to understand the cost of the roll-out of this enterprise and where those costs are going. I know in my own neighbourhood, Mr. Speaker, there is a Nova Scotia Liquor Commission being renovated to accommodate cannabis sales; the renovation is happening. We know that staff are being hired. The minister mentioned, which I hadn't heard previously, that education materials are being produced.
We have no details about that, and in the absence of any other details, the clearest way we can ask questions about that is to find the line in the budget where those things are reflected, so that we can dig into them in more depth, and we just don't have that opportunity. That's frankly been frustrating for us.
The other question that I have for the minister, as we look at this piece of legislation is, why aren't we thinking about local economic development opportunities connected to this industry? It seemed a foregone conclusion at this point that cannabis will be legal, but I asked the Minister of Business, what were all of the Crown Corporations under his purview and his own department doing to encourage local production, to use some of the fallow production facilities around the province for this purpose? The response, Mr. Speaker, was nothing - we're doing nothing.
We know that there will be a shortage of supply - the federal task force has said that, other people have said that, and we know that that's true. If that's the case, in a province where we know that economic development is a challenge, with a government who consistently trumpets their interest and ability in that particular file, why aren't we looking at that, Mr. Speaker? Why aren't we being innovative in that particular way?
Our Party is also concerned about what we suspect one of the unintended consequences might be of this legislation, for whom in fact this substance is becoming legal, because of the complications around the ability to consume cannabis in rental properties. To give the minister credit, I know that they've been working hard on this file, that they have made allowances so that a tenant can leave without prejudice if their told that the rules in their building are changing. Nonetheless, the reality is, Mr. Speaker, if you own your own home you can consume cannabis, and if you rent, you can't.
Whatever you think about the legalization of cannabis, that just seems patently unfair, on the face of it. If we're going to have something that is legal, it doesn't make sense, quite frankly, that some people would be able to use it and other people wouldn't. Based on the minister's comments tonight about motor vehicles, it seems the same would be true there.
Last, I'll echo the comments that we've heard before in this Chamber around education. You know, I've listened carefully to the minister talk about the trajectory we've seen with tobacco and that tobacco awareness campaigns and the fact that tobacco is legal, has in fact, allowed the government and advocates in particular to take a front seat to safe and responsible use and ultimately reduction of use.
That may be true, it may be that we have the opportunity here, but as my colleagues have said, we haven't seen anything, we haven't seen any details about an education campaign. We haven't seen any supports. I know there are many in the education system, which are really in high schools, who are very concerned about this - teachers, support staff. We're concerned, frankly, that people aren't necessarily going to have the tools they need.
With that, I'll finish my comments and just say that I am - we all say this at the end of our remarks, but I genuinely am looking forward to hearing from people at the Law Amendments Committee because I do think, as the Leader of the Official Opposition has said, the public survey portion of this particular engagement was lacking to say the least. I think that while we know that stakeholder groups were consulted, that MADD Canada was consulted, that the Investment Property Association - I mean the government did their work to a certain extent, but I, for one, am very interested to hear what the public has to say on this file.
So, with those comments, I'll take my seat.
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