Merci, Monsieur le President. [English translation not provided.] It is just as clear that the presence of a cannabis working group means the government knew the regulations would be needed. I ask today if the Minister could provide the terms of reference of the cannabis working group, including the date the working group was established? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Justice.
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 the workplace; to protect public health by controlling the public smoking of cannabis; to enhance public awareness of the health risks associated with cannabis; to provide a safe and secure retail regime for the adult purchase of cannabis and provide for local options; to establish cannabis distribution and consumption restrictions and prohibition. As I have mentioned, we will be seeking the advice and information of the public. There will be public engagement sessions during the summer in the regional centres and also in several small communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
[English translation not provided.] He has laid out clearly what the group has produced to date. How long did it take them to come up with these principles, principles which have basically been around since the 2015 Liberal party platform announcement? There might have been crib from that platform, but I will leave to the Minister to answer. How many times has the working group met? These are well established principles behind this. I'm wondering if they have done anything else. How many times have they met?
I don't have those exact figures before me. I believe they did meet a large number of times, and I will attempt to obtain those figures and provide them to the Member opposite.
I guess what I am getting at, Mr. Speaker, is that beyond those principles, there are a number of extremely technical issues. I will ask the Minister this: what is the department's approach to communities that wish to prohibit the sale and use of marijuana products in their communities? How has the working group addressed that issue, and have they made any recommendations to the Minister?
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.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. What I hear from the Minister is he has not yet taken a position on that, and I think it is important we get out to the communities. Those discussions have to be carefully crafted so we get good results, and the question we put to our citizens is clear. Apart from those principles, does the Minister have a set of discussion paper around this that he can share with Honourable Members on this side of the House that makes it clear what those questions are going to be that we put to our residents around the important subject of cannabis regulation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we are going out to the communities and seeking their engagements. We really want to hear from them. We do not have any preconceptions as to how this legislation should be crafted. We are hoping to hear from various interested parties, in particular those small communities where this issue is certainly to be of great concern.
