Public Safety committee  In terms of answering the question, it may be helpful to separate the two different kinds of consultation. The first kind the minister referred to are the criteria in the act that require letters from various organizations: police chief, provincial ministers, records of communi

Public Safety committee  Yes. If the minister chose to consult, upon receiving an application, it could not be longer than 90 days. It's a 90-day process. That's correct.

Public Safety committee  No. There are 27 criteria that go with an application. Among those criteria is a requirement that the applicant submit evidence of community consultations that have been held, a report from the consultations, the views of people they consulted, any measures they plan to put in pl

Health committee  Health Canada has issued a warning, recommending that people not use these products.

Health committee  The tool we've used to date has been the Health Canada website.

Health committee  We have no reported incidents of that in Canada but we do monitor internationally. The cases we're aware of involve large refillable cartridges that contain nicotine, when the child gets their hands on a cartridge and drinks it.

Health committee  No. That's not the impression we were trying to convey. We do enforce the Food and Drugs Act. The actions that Peter spoke about were under the Food and Drugs Act. It's a question of the Food and Drugs Act covering a lot more than electronic cigarettes and where you choose to ap

Health committee  Very simply put, it's the difference between recommending high-level principles, which are relatively easy to come to and certainly we've seen them stated in various places, and then turning that into actual, perhaps proposed, changes to legislation or regulation, and how that wo

Health committee  It's not a unique policy approach. It's fair to say that if the WHO report highlights this, they did a survey of all the member states. The diversity in approach is striking. Some countries have banned electronic cigarettes outright. Others have no regulatory controls at all. The

Health committee  Certainly there are parallels with the tobacco industry, yes. That's correct.

Health committee  We aren't aware of narcotics being used in these devices. We've received no reports from law enforcement on that.

Health committee  We agree. As the American Heart Association, the WHO, and others have said, there is a need for a regulatory regime that is sufficiently broad to deal with the scientific uncertainties that—you're absolutely right—will evolve over time. You want a regulatory regime that is broad

Health committee  In some of the areas you mentioned, no, I don't. For instance, I think having smoke-free spaces was discussed in response to a previous question. We are seeing municipalities act on this. It is by and large within the jurisdiction of municipalities, except in federal workplaces—a

Health committee  The policy work is focused in a couple of areas. We are examining the Food and Drug Act, the Tobacco Act, and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and are going through an exercise concerning how we can use our current tools. The gaps in how we can regulate a unique produc

Health committee  I'll take the question. I'll start with the issue of the potential use of illegal substances in these cigarettes. Yes, we're aware of that as well. I think all I would say is that if illegal substances are used in an electronic cigarette, they remain illegal substances. If we're