44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 30, 2023
- 11:48:09 a.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank my colleague for educating a lot of us on some of the inconsistencies and possible misinformation that was provided by Dr. Sharma on this very issue of the unfortunate demise of this young child.
It's interesting, as my colleague presented to us today, the stacks of information we've received from all across this country. He's on the east coast. I'm in the Prairies, and my colleague is on the west coast. It's going all across.... We've all received this. As he has indicated, I know that our colleagues across the way have received it as well.
In pointing out so many issues here, when we look at this motion that's being put forward to us, it's very clear and very straightforward, because the reality is that what we're seeing here is a discussion on regulatory changes that were presented in Bill C-47, dealing in particular with sections 500 to 504, I believe. The changes are being imposed upon small businesses in Canada, which provide, as my colleague has pointed out, tremendous economic benefit to this country, and that's going to have a huge impact on consumers and the rights of those consumers to choose what they would like to use, whether it's vitamins.... I take vitamin D and vitamin C. I use the Jamieson brand. That's what I use. It's a product that I've used for many years. It's very clear on that exactly what I'm taking, but there are so many other ones out there.
Ultimately, the process is that there's a regulatory step that's in place. Could it be improved? Yes, it could be, and maybe the industry.... In my conversations on this with people, they've indicated that they are prepared to make those changes to adjust that so that we can have that avenue.
On the issue of dealing with it such that people can actually read what's put out there, they've also indicated the great value of maybe adding more into it. However, that said, the packaging part now becomes a huge aspect of it, because if we're dealing with a hundred tablets of vitamin C in a small tube, the amount of paper that has to be produced to be able to put on there in a print that people can read.... I have to put my glasses on, and if I don't have them with me when I do it, that's on me to know what I'm reading and what I'm not. Ultimately that cost to the industry is going to be in the millions and hundreds of millions of dollars, which in turn is going to have a huge impact and result in Canadians all across this country.... I like to use the term “trickle-down effect”. It is a huge trickle-down effect.
I talk about it from the petroleum industry point of view and how shutting down the petroleum industry, the coal industry and the energy industry trickles down to those small communities. The same thing happens here with natural products. You start impacting that, and that trickle-down effect is going to affect small businesses. A small community that has a small business person in there who maybe employs one or two people lays off one person. That person has a family of five. Where do they go? They move somewhere else. That community is impacted and so on. It trickles down. The schools get impacted because they don't have the kids in the schools. These are huge impacts, and we need to be aware of that.
This motion is basically saying, “Enough of all of this.” Let's support this and go back to the government to say, “Enough. We don't see this as acceptable. These changes are a huge impact on the economy and on the industry.”
Our witnesses today talked a bit about adverse effects. One of the things I wrote down when she made the comment about it was, how many? How many adverse effects do you...? Dr. Sharma has said 700. That's 700 out of a population of.... What's the population of Canada? It's 30 million-plus people—
728 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 11:53:05 a.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The research out there says that, in hospital situations, 7.5% of the patient population that gets admitted to hospitals is due to adverse events for regulated prescription medications. That's huge—7.5%—when you compare that to 700 for natural health products. Ultimately, “The Canadian Adverse Events Study”—this is from back in 2004—showed that, of that 185,000 of the 2.5 million hospital admissions, 70,000 of those could potentially have been prevented. This is with regard to prescription medications. To turn around and say 700 from natural health food products.... Look at the difference. There's a huge difference between those numbers.
I think this is a very educational part. We need to be very aware of these facts. We need to turn around and say that, yes, there are adverse effects. Yes, the industry needs to make certain that they're doing what they're doing, and it needs to be stepping up to make certain that that's done. I believe that the industry is doing that and making the steps, and it's prepared to make changes. However, when all of a sudden this government turns around and starts putting in right-to-sell, per-item costs for that industry, it's a huge cost, and that's an annual cost for every product they have. Then you turn around and take a look at the class of the level of the product that they're trying to sell.
I remember when I was a regulator dealing in the industry and in my profession. People brought across the table a new ultrasound machine. It had to go in front of Health Canada, and in front of Health Canada, it had to go through the process of making sure that it was appropriate. That cost was huge. Now, granted, we're talking about a product that's providing ultrasound treatment to somebody. Yes, there are a lot of issues that can result in various side effects there, so that product needed to be regulated appropriately. However, the costs were huge. When we're talking about a health food product—like a vitamin—and we classify that and have these huge, thousands-of-dollars costs.... Then, on top of that, you have the site licensing fees, which are supposed to be based on a cost recovery, yet no one has done an assessment on exactly what that cost is. These are huge amounts. I think the steps and the processes are not in place to follow those aspects and to make certain that we are doing what we should be doing.
My colleague has put forward a motion that we're dealing with that I think we need to look at, and look at immediately, to turn around and say to the government that this is wrong. The regulatory process has been put forward. Many people in the industry have put forward their information. It's time to turn to the government and say that this is not acceptable. Either it goes back to relooking at this, or we end it as we speak.
With that said, Mr. Chair, I want to thank you for the ability to speak on this.
I ask my colleagues to support this motion.
558 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- 11:59:30 a.m.
- Watch
- Read Aloud
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I guess the question is on using the word “misinformation”. His interpretation of the word “misinformation”, if you look it up in the dictionary, is totally different from what the actual terminology is.
42 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
