Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the member's questions. I'll answer them in reverse order, starting with menthol. There will be a little bit of repetition, so I'll move through this fairly quickly. We believe that the menthol market in Canada is markedly different from the one in

Health committee  We could debate the hypotheses around that....

Health committee  I would acknowledge that this is the case. I would like to return to the issue of contraband. I don't want my remarks to leave an incorrect impression. Do we have direct evidence or research saying one way or the other exactly what is going to happen? Not exactly. But there is

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the member's question. With all respect to industry members, who I'm sure will be writing or testifying after me, this is an interesting area in which to regulate and legislate. It's rather a game of leapfrog. We will design legislation and regulation

Health committee  There is no question that this is an aggressive strategy, Madam Chair, in terms of what the government is proposing. This would again be a world first, where Canada has been a leader. We have stalled in terms of the number of smokers in this country and the rate that we've been

Health committee  I feel like it's Thursday and we're doing clause-by-clause, Madam Chair.

Health committee  First of all, I want to acknowledge and say thank you to the member for acknowledging the work of the department officials and all of the NGOs for bringing this piece of legislation forward. As I said earlier, we believe we have targeted the largest product classes and flavours

Health committee  The member's comments are quite insightful. I'm sure there will be witnesses beyond us who will speak further to these issues. As my colleague Cathy Sabiston indicated, we have found that the research that exists on menthol is primarily out of the U.S., where it is a very diffe

Health committee  Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his question. First of all, it is a matter of targeting the products that have a greater impact. In our opinion, these products are cigarettes, little cigars and other products. Of course, there are new categories. That is why w

Health committee  Thank you for the question. In our opinion, this bill tackles the problem. The industry uses the new products, the flavoured products and the new flavours to target youth. That is its strategy. In our opinion, this is a way to tackle the challenge and to reduce the rate at which

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the member's question. I'll will turn to my colleague Director General Cathy Sabiston to complement my answer, but my short response to that is a bit of yes and no, unfortunately. Any time we move to prohibit a product, then by the very nature of pro

Health committee  My colleague from the Department of Justice has a quick point to add.

Health committee  The member's question has a number of elements. First, on whether there are enough resources, as bureaucrats in departments we're instructed to make do with the resources that parliamentarians, in their wisdom, have allocated to these different issues. It's really not my place as

Health committee  That is correct.

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. I will turn to my colleague, Denis, to get into some of the more specific details, but the objective is to ban flavours in cigarettes and little cigars and blunts, with the exception of menthol. Denis, have you points to add?