Louis Sebert

As I mentioned earlier, NGOs such as the John Howard Society generally want the stability of a long-term contract, so that's why this period of time was agreed upon. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do.

There are no additional costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can advise that the contract runs until March 31, 2021. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Certainly, Mr. Speaker, this is a complex issue. Of course, the federal government deals with criminal law, and marijuana will be decriminalized July 1, 2018. We will be soliciting advice, as I mentioned, from the various communities. There are communities that are self-governing, and it is going to be very interesting to hear their input which we are seeking and will reflect, likely in our legislation, as it may be, that certain self-governing bodies, local laws, may actually override our own. These are important issues. We will be discussing those with the various communities and governments...

Mr. Chair, we would like to think that our decisions are evidence-based. After all, we did go out and commissioned a very extensive report on this program, which suggested certain changes, which after a good deal of consideration, were incorporated into the new RFP. We then went out, and unfortunately, there were not any bidders. Therefore, we had to look further afield to make sure the program continues. As to evaluating the program, of course we will be evaluating the program, and perhaps I could have Ms. Gardiner expand on my answer. Thank you.

I don't want anybody to think that a decision was made irrationally. After all, we went out for an evaluation report. This matter has been brought up several times in the House, so there is a very careful evaluation prepared. On the basis of that evaluation, an RFP was issued. There were no responses. We then went out to NGOs, so I am quite confident that we have conducted this whole process properly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I think I will need to speak to the procurement office before I make any obligations in that regard. I, myself, have not seen the contract. I'm not certain whether there are certain elements in it that are confidential or proprietary, so that's my answer. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, the working group has been working on a series of principles, and these will be taken out on the road for public consultation in the regional centres, and also at least several of the smaller communities. There are certain principles that we are acting upon, as follows: restricting youth access to cannabis and the protection of young people from promotion and enticements to use cannabis; legislation to allow adults to possess and access regulated quality controlled legal cannabis; to discourage drug impaired driving; to protect workers and the public from drug impairment in...

Well, we were disappointed when we did not receive a response to our RFP from the Tree of Peace or from other possible providers. Therefore, it was necessary to seek other avenues to make sure that this very important program would continue to be delivered. Therefore, we went out to NGOs that we thought would have the capacity to deal with this type of contract. Ultimately, the John Howard Society stepped forward, and that is how they ended up with the contract. Thank you, Mr. Chair.