moved for leave to introduce Bill C-379, an act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (food labelling).
Mr. Speaker, this bill is a revised and improved version of one that I introduced in the last Parliament. In it I propose to require basic information on chain restaurant menus and the labels of processed foods and fresh meat. One or more of these measures finds support in reports of the National Academy of Sciences, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario and the Canadian Institute of Health Information.
Even the most vocal industry critics of the bill recently announced a voluntary restaurant nutrition labelling program that will do some of the things they said were impossible just last spring. The bill is supported by 29 health and citizen groups representing two million Canadians.
I urge colleagues on both sides of the House to make it work. Canadians expect no less.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)