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Decentralized Democracy

Todd Doherty

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 30, 2023
Context: Department of Health's Regulatory Changes for Natural Health Products Committee Business (HESA) - Oct/30/23
Mr. Todd Doherty (Cariboo—Prince George, CPC)
  • 11:33:24 a.m.
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Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to our colleague. For the purpose of this conversation, I will read again what the motion is: That, given that the proposed cost recovery and labelling regulations on natural health products are expected to have negative impacts on both Canadian businesses and consumer choice, the committee call upon the Minister of Health to immediately revoke these changes, and that the committee report this motion to the House. I bring this up again because, as has been mentioned, I'm not quite sure about the exact amount of correspondence we have received, but I am on record as saying that this is by far the topic that has garnered the most correspondence, messages, emails and calls to my office in my eight years of being a parliamentarian. It's unbelievable, the amount we have. I think we have a number of bankers boxes, both in my riding office and here in Ottawa at my Hill office, filled with fliers, really Canadians' feedback. That's, as I've said before, why we're here, to listen to all Canadians regardless of political stripe or political leaning. I do want to bring us back to the first meeting we had on this, when I had my intervention with Dr. Sharma. Part of the reason we have concerns over this is testimony from Dr. Sharma and her comments. If you remember, it was Dr. Sharma's testimony that over 700 Canadians had lost their lives due to mislabelling. Again, as I've said before, I don't want to see anybody lose their life due to this, and it is deeply concerning, but some of her comments were suspect. If you'll remember, I raised those points with her, and she used a specific case, one I was familiar with, the death of 18-month-old Ezekiel Stephan. She attributed the mislabelling of health care products in her testimony to one of the important reasons that these regulations need to take place. I believe her testimony was that we had already seen the death of an 18-month-old child. When I questioned her on this, saying, in fact, that her testimony was misleading, she gave me a verbal gymnastics explanation as to why she used that. When I pressed her on it, she refused to back down from that. The reality of that case is that Ezekiel was fighting meningitis. He had young parents who mistakenly thought that their baby, who I believe was their first, was struggling with strep or croup. I couldn't imagine what they were going through. I have four children, all young adults now. I have a young granddaughter, and you know, especially if it's your first child, every time that baby cries, you're wondering what the problem is, what's going on and how you can help. They were grasping, so they thought that they were doing the right thing, and they presented not necessarily natural health food products but home remedies. I believe one was a garlic and apple vinegar tonic. When it got to the point where the baby was really struggling, they called for an ambulance. That ambulance was not equipped with breathing devices that could fit an infant, which ultimately led to that baby's passing—not natural health food products. It was a combination of terrible events. I bring that back up, because I believe we're rushing here. Our natural health food industry is regulated. We definitely had testimony from Health Canada officials who were here. They said they did their due diligence and conducted surveys. I believe that's what Dr. Supriya Sharma said. Going back to Dr. Supriya Sharma's comments, Mr. Davies' last question to Dr. Sharma was, “I think it would help Dr. Sharma and all of us with this. In that case, did the product that was given make a claim that it would treat the particular ailment the child had?”
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Context: Department of Health's Regulatory Changes for Natural Health Products Committee Business (HESA) - Oct/30/23
Mr. Todd Doherty
  • 11:41:16 a.m.
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Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll go back to the last question that Mr. Davies.... Again I think it frames what we're talking about here with this motion and the reasons why we have concerns with it. The transcript reads: Mr. Davies:: I think it would help Dr. Sharma and all of us with this. In that case, did the product that was given make a claim that it would treat the particular ailment the child had? Dr. Supriya Sharma: We don't have the details.... She says, “We don't have the details”, yet it's one of the cases that she cited as to why it is so important that this industry face costly regulations—costly regulations that could potentially see the demise of 60% to 70% of these small businesses, if what we're also hearing from those officials is that the majority of the businesses in this industry are small to medium-sized businesses. The Canadian Health Food Association is the largest Canadian organization dedicated to natural health and organic products. Their members consist of over 1,000 businesses across Canada, including manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors and importers of natural health products. Indeed, natural health products are an important source of organic and wellness products used by over 71% of Canadians. The industry is a $5.5-billion industry. It generates $2.8 billion in taxable revenue and supports over 54,000 Canadian jobs. As I said, many of them are small to medium-sized businesses. After accounting for the full supply chain and increased economic spending, its total footprint is estimated to be $11 billion of GDP. Within the sector, 86% of the businesses have 50 employees or less. The reason I say that is that these small businesses are the backbone of this industry, and these regulations are at risk of closing the doors of these small businesses. Ninety-four per cent of those businesses within the sector have 200 employees or less, and 97% have 500 employees or less. These discriminatory regulatory changes under the outdated and broken self-care framework will crush the small and medium-sized businesses. They'll have a profound impact: 83% of these businesses say they will struggle to absorb the costs that these regulations will bring in, and 76% of the industry responded to indicate a high likelihood of product removal from Canada. This means Canadians won't have access to these products. Sixty-six per cent say employment will suffer, resulting in devastating job losses. One in five businesses will be at risk of closing. Our colleague, in his intervention, mentioned his concerns. My primary concern on this is not just the testimony of Dr. Sharma, which I find suspect—I'm sorry, but I gave her multiple opportunities to withdraw those comments. As I said in my testimony, I believe her to be a good person, but it is misleading when you stand here before a parliamentary committee and you provide testimony as such and you don't have all the facts. Because she is a doctor, we just take that testimony at face level, but I think that behooves all of us to do the research on that, which is why I questioned her that day. Overwhelmingly, it is this Canadian industry that we are at risk of decimating due to these unnecessary regulatory changes. I'm not discounting the testimony that we heard today and the written submissions as well. I think again, as Dr. Ellis had mentioned, on the 700 deaths that are being attributed to mislabelling, when we ask for data on that, we're not able to access that. At least, I haven't seen the data on that. I'm sorry. It's not deaths. It's 700 adverse effects. That was my mistake. Those are events and cases that.... Again, that's why I made that mistake. It's because it was my understanding that it was deaths. If we had the data, then perhaps we could accurately state our facts. Again, it's what we need. Going back to Dr. Sharma's testimony, I take no joy in doing this, but Canadians deserve for us to do our jobs when we come here. I've said it before and I'll say it probably multiple times during the course of our committee work. Committees are supposed to be masters of their own destiny. We're here to do the job. We have medical experts on this committee. Sadly, we are relegated to...not talking out the clock, but having to take control because, as we've seen in the past, when we ask questions or we push for discussion outside of the government agenda, debate gets adjourned or we get railroaded. That's sad. With that, Mr. Chair, I will cede the floor to the next speaker. I support my colleague's motion. Thank you.
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