Amendments to Bill C-45:
What will be Accepted and Rejected?
Before the Bill becomes law, it will need to go back to the House of Commons where the 46 amendments made by the Senate will be debated. Many of the amendments are technical and are not expected to cause much excitement or controversy. However, there are a number of amendments that may lead to significant debate in the House.
One amendment that is expected to receive much debate in the House of Commons is the Senate’s Social Affairs Committee amendment that will leave rules on home cultivation up to the provinces to determine. This amendment, if accepted, will explicitly allow provinces and territories to prohibit home cultivation altogether. The Quebec and Manitoba governments have already stated as part of their framework that home cultivation will be banned, notwithstanding that the federal legislation allows for Canadian households to grow four of their own plants. It is yet to be seen if the House of Commons will be comfortable allowing provinces to eliminate this right that is otherwise given to those in other provinces, especially given Prime Minister Trudeau’s previous public sentiment that home cultivation is key in ensuring cannabis is not diverted to the black market come legalization.
In addition to the home cultivation amendment, another potentially lively amendment is Senator Judith Seidman’s amendment which would prohibit the use of cannabis brand elements on promotional items that are not cannabis or cannabis accessories. Although it is unclear how this amendment would be enforced, in practice, the idea of a ban on “cannaswag” has taken those in the industry by storm.
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