Bill C-460 (Historical)

Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada Act

An Act respecting the implementation of the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada

The purpose of this enactment is
(a) to implement the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada;
(b) to establish the Sodium Reduction Advisory Committee, the mandate of which is to advise the Minister of Health on the progress made in implementing the strategy; and
(c) to require the amendment of the Food and Drug Regulations.

Sodium Reduction Strategy

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition concerns Bill C-460, the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada Act and has about 25 signatures from the Nanaimo-Ladysmith area.

Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada Act

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded divisions on the motion at second stage of Bill C-460.

The House resumed from May 3 consideration of the motion that Bill C-460, An Act respecting the implementation of the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today at the end of the second hour of debate on Bill C-460 to have the last five minutes to respond to the debate.

First, I would like to thank all of the members on all sides of the House who have participated in this debate. Many members have participated with great passion and vigour, and certainly the issue before us is a very important one. In fact, I would argue that this is probably the most critical public issue that is facing us today.

It is very interesting to note that there has been an incredible amount of media attention on the need for sodium reduction. There are major articles in the press every day. It is something that is of great concern to many people in Canada.

I am looking at a recent article in The Globe and Mail, which says, “Health Canada's voluntary, unsupervised guidelines for the food industry aren't adequate to the task, say health experts and advocates”.

The article quotes Kevin Willis, the director of partnerships at the Canadian Stroke Network, who said:

We don't have data available in a transparent way that we can monitor that these changes are actually occurring. Government could require companies to make that information available so it can be verified. It's all part of the transparent monitoring process.

I have to say that in the development of this bill there has been an incredible amount of support across the country, and some of the organizations have been mentioned here in the debate today. I particularly want to thank Dr. Norm Campbell, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada CIHR chair in hypertension prevention and control, and Bill Jeffery, national coordinator for the Centre for Science in the Public Interest. These two individuals have been just incredible, both here on the Hill and in providing information, education and awareness. I think they have spoken volumes about the critical need to have this bill move forward at second reading.

I have listened to the arguments from the Conservative members, and I want to reiterate that this is actually a very straightforward bill. Again, this bill would implement the sodium reduction strategy that was developed not by me or by any member in this House, but by an expert working group in 2010. The purpose of this bill is to make sure that the guidelines and strategy that were devised are actually followed through.

As we have heard from many members in this House, the non-action, the pathetic lack of leadership from the government on the sodium reduction strategy and its disbanding of the sodium working group have really been quite shocking. As many people I have spoken to in the community and some organizations have told me, at one point Canada was the leader in the world, and other countries looked to Canada to take leadership. However, that situation has now been completely reversed. We are so far behind on this issue and on many other public health issues that it really is very disturbing.

In arguments we have heard today, in fact, we have heard members who wanted to ridicule the bill and make fun of it and come up with jokes. That was very perplexing. It makes me wonder if they know of the major organizations in support of this bill. They have done the research, they are the experts, and they believe this bill is sound. Do the Conservatives not understand that the Canadian public want to see the Canadian government take leadership?

Some members referred to a survey that was done. A very recent survey was done by the University of Toronto in March of this year. It tells us that 78% of Canadians support setting maximum sodium levels in food sold in grocery stores and that 76% agreed that warning labels and statements should be displayed so that people have the information they need.

I want to end by saying that other countries are doing what needs to be done. Recently South Africa announced that it is now going to require regulations for sodium reduction that have to be met by June 2016. Many other countries have taken much more significant action than Canada has.

At the end of the day, I think we have to ask ourselves a question: are we committed to the health of Canadians and to preventing the deaths that are now taking place? Will we ensure the health of Canadians in the future? If so, then this bill is one concrete measure that would allow that to happen.

I urge all members of the House to read the bill properly, to look at who is supporting it and to support it at second reading so that we can look at it in committee, where we can address any issues or concerns that may exist. I urge members to vote to support the bill in principle.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening intently and I have find it very interesting that we are going to set up a sodium control mechanism by registering the amount of sodium that goes into food. I wonder if the next thing is we will have trigger locks on all of our salt shakers on the table.

The NDP members want to have a sodium registry, but they want to decriminalize marijuana. They talk about health issues with sodium, but have they thought about the other issues that they bring forward? It seems they are sucking and blowing at the same time in relation to many of the policies they are behind.

It just does not seem to fit. In fact, I am wondering what is going to happen next after they control the amount of sodium that goes into products instead of just providing information and education. Maybe they are going to throw people in jail for testing too high on salt. Maybe we are going to have lineups of people being tested for salt. I am not sure. I just do not know where this ends.

The control mechanism those members want to force on consumers clearly indicates the disrespect they have for taxpayers and Canadians alike, thinking they cannot make their own decisions based on proper information.

We know for instance that on processed foods it is required to list the amount of sodium that is contained within those products. Therefore, consumers can go along, pick up a can when they are buying their groceries and see how much sodium it has. Then if they have a sodium issue, they can control the amount of sodium they take by being educated. As we know, just about all Canadians have the ability to read the labels.

The NDP wants to set up this mechanism, this highly regulated and expensive Canadian government registry that will have all of these products on the list and the amount of sodium in them. What are people going to do? Every time they want to go out to get a processed product, such as a bag of chips from the grocery store, will they have to run home and check the computer or take the information with them? Are the New Democrats trying to create more money for large cellphone companies? I am really not sure where they are coming from. I clearly think this is a disrespectful model to follow. It is wasteful, ineffective and will simply not work.

I would like to begin by reiterating the work the government is doing to address sodium intake in Canada because it is a serious concern. However, the NDP members say that it will lower health costs and yet they want to decriminalize something like smoking marijuana that would have such a high health cost to consumers. Their position just does not make sense.

I would like to talk about what the Canadian government is doing.

First, the sodium working group that my friend talked about recommended the government take a voluntary multi-stakeholder approach to reducing the amount of sodium found in foods in the Canadian market. I agree because Canadians are smart. They can feel their health. They see their doctors. We have a good medical system in our country. It does need some work, like most things, but one thing that does not need more work is a sodium registry. Clearly, this would not be good for Canadians and, as I said, I think it disrespects Canadians. It certainly disrespects the independent working group that was set up to find some solutions to the issue.

The government recognized the need for this comprehensive approach by setting up the group. It acknowledged the roles of industry, government and Canadians in working together to reduce sodium consumption. However, we must not do so through some draconian methodology that will, frankly, be very expensive and accomplish nothing except to penalize companies and consumers.

In particular, I would like to talk about the 90-day coming into force program. I know many people in this place have not been commercial printers, but I can promise them that a 90-day coming into force regime would not even enable companies to change the labelling fast enough if they were to reduce the amount of sodium. It would not allow them to change the product. These are products they have spent many years on in putting the perfect ingredients in, as they see it and consumers demand, and sodium is used as a preservative for some of these products.

What are we going to have with a 90-day coming into force? If the NDP had its way and if it were in government, it would have its way, we would find there would be nothing on the shelves. That is what it wants to do. It wants to control the lives of consumers, drive up taxpaying costs and disrespecting Canadians through this.

We have established a voluntary approach. It focuses on three main pillars. The first is awareness and education for consumers. It is clear that the Conservative government respects Canadians and respects the ability of Canadians to make proper choices.

The second pillar is the provision of guidance to the industry to reduce sodium in processed foods. This is a voluntary approach, but at the same time one that will make changes. We have seen this work in other areas, including the transportation industry, consumer groups and food safety issues. It does work and it works in such a way that industry members have an opportunity to do so in a consumer-minded and commercial-minded approach that makes sense and does not shut them down and take all of these processed foods off the store shelves.

The third pillar is proper research. This government has done a lot of investment in research and development, not just in the aerospace industry, not just in the transportation industry, not just in the criminal situation where we need to make sure we have proper laws that are not too draconian, but send criminals to jail because they have done wrong things and the public needs protection. Research is very important, especially in food safety and looking at consumers and consumers' patterns of eating, especially Canadians because we are a little different.

We have the far north and some other areas that frankly need to be more careful in relation to the amount of food they eat and what types of food they have. I highly recommend fresh fruits and vegetables and proper foods like that, regularly going to a marketplace and having the food come in every two or three days. Many European nations and other nations do this. They do not buy in large bulk like Canadians do and like we had to do as a result of our heritage. They buy regularly every day and that is why they have sometimes a much better source of food than we do in Canada.

Focusing on these three areas, we are clearly working to respect Canadians' views, but also to lower Canadians' sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams per day by 2016. This is an ambitious target, but by educating consumers and Canadians we can do that.

This is an approach that is already showing progress. We have had success in this area in meeting its target. As a result of that, in the small amount of time we have taken to do this, it shows that this government's approach is clearly working. Data recently collected from samples of breads, breakfast cereals and canned soups show that sodium levels have been reduced by about 10% overall in these products.

I find very interesting that the NDP members vote against, for instance, infrastructure projects and all the economic action plans that the Conservative government brought forward. They vote against jobs. They sent a delegation to Washington to shut down the oil sands industry, to shut down the jobs that Canadians are working in, to shut down the manufacturing industry in Ontario and Quebec that supplies somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40% to 50% of the jobs outside of Alberta that are working in the oil sands. It is shocking that they would try to shut down Canadian jobs, that they would vote against action plans to create employment and infrastructure and a higher quality of life in Canada, yet they want to control the amount of salt that Canadians eat. Quite frankly, it is ridiculous.

Bill C-460 unfortunately does not acknowledge the work that has already been done and the positive changes that are coming out. It just criticizes. I would like to focus today on the costs especially.

I know I do not have a lot of time because I have a lot to say about the bill because of the ludicrous nature of it. This would be a significant cost to taxpayers and how do we maintain that? Well, the government has to maintain it. The government has to maintain it on a continuous basis and keep it up-to-date. I think it would be underutilized, if at all utilized, by Canadians and would cost a lot of money. The only people who would actually know what is on the website, because those would be the only people able to use it, are government people who are inputting the data. I just do not think it makes sense.

By mandating the levels of sodium in food products, manufacturers would also be forced to reformulate their product in a very quick fashion. That is not how it works. Frankly, as I said before, they would end up pulling the product off the shelf until they could conform properly because it is an issue of food safety as well. They would be changing the products that go into their food because they would have to, as a result of the NDP bill. It would mean so many disruptions to Canadians' lives and accomplish absolutely nothing.

It is clear that Canadians made a choice in the last election. They voted for a Conservative government so that we can continue to operate as they want us to do, continue to respect Canadians, continue to allow them to make their own educated choices, but to make sure at the same time that they have the ability to understand what they are consuming and be able to understand what choices they are making.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we marked the second anniversary of the election of the NDP as the official opposition in the House of Commons. I would like to acknowledge the exemplary work of my four assistants, Olivier Thibault, Katia Isabelle, Isabelle Bourassa and Camille Bouillon Bégin.

Today, I am very pleased to rise in the House to speak to Bill C-460, An Act respecting the implementation of the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada. This bill is very important to me.

First of all, I would like to say that foods high in sodium are the health scourge of the 21st century. Bill C-460 proposes a strategy to prevent thousands of needless deaths by reducing Canadians' sodium consumption. The government must address the issue of high sodium consumption, just as it tackled drunk driving and smoking a few years ago.

It is imperative that we lower sodium in foods to a safe level, improve food labelling, protect our children from misleading food advertising, ensure that public money is not used to pay for high-sodium foods and, above all, have Canada lead the way in food industry monitoring.

Our society is grappling with a deadly killer. Consuming too much sodium is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease in Canada. It also has devastating effects on the health of people suffering from serious illnesses such as stomach cancer, osteoporosis, asthma, obesity and kidney disease.

Sodium is a true blight on our health care system. We allocate time, money and human resources to the treatment of illnesses that are directly caused by the overconsumption of sodium, which is present in processed foods. Therefore, these resources are not available to fund research on and treatment for childhood diseases, congenital disorders and heart defects.

It is time to examine our conscience and make a choice. We can put in place a national sodium reduction strategy that will impose clear rules on the food industry, decrease Canadians' sodium consumption and help Canadians make healthier food choices. By reducing Canadians' sodium consumption to 1,800 mg a day, we could prevent almost 24,000 cardiovascular incidents a year. We could also prevent 10,000 to 16,000 deaths a year.

This government has proven to be particularly obsessed with the economy in recent years. Reducing sodium consumption would help save billions of dollars. For example, reducing our sodium consumption by 1,500 mg a day would generate direct savings of $1.38 billion in health care alone. Furthermore, if we include indirect costs, we could save $2.99 billion, which is almost $3 billion. That is a significant amount.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the opposition's Bill C-460, an act respecting the implementation of the sodium reduction strategy for Canada.

I am also pleased to speak to our government's efforts, which are already starting to work, to address sodium reduction, as it is an important issue to all Canadians. Our government is fully committed to working with our stakeholders to reduce the average amount of sodium that Canadians consume.

However, we cannot support the heavy-handed approach to sodium reduction as proposed in Bill C-460. The approach to sodium reduction creates unnecessary red tape and additional financial costs to the taxpayers that may also result in unintended risks in food safety.

I will be walking through some of the highlights of how the measures proposed in this bill compare to the actual recommendations of the sodium working group and to the actions our government has taken with respect to sodium reduction.

I think it is important to highlight that the sodium working group recommendations were pan-Canadian recommendations. Pan-Canadian, in this context, means the recommendations were addressed to all levels of government, and even to individuals.

I would point out that Bill C-460 has excluded the province of Quebec. As was highlighted in the first hour of debate on this bill, it would seem rather impractical and costly to try to impose mandatory labelling requirements on the food industry to only selected parts of the country.

This side of the House wonders why it is only Quebec that is spared the heavy-handed provisions of this bill. If Quebec would benefit from an exemption from the bill, why not the rest of Canada? The experts did not recommend that Quebec be exempted. They recommended a pan-Canadian approach, which is what our government is pursuing. The experts also recommended a voluntary approach. The call for mandatory compliance with guidance levels as described in the bill stands in direct contrast to the working group's recommendations.

A voluntary approach is what we have in place now, with guidance for the food industry on reducing sodium in processed foods. The guidance provides direction to the food industry to continue with the sodium reduction efforts and help Canadians lower their average sodium intake.

The guidance, which provides specific benchmark levels for over 100 categories of processed foods, directly supports one of the working group's core recommendations, and that was to reduce the average amount of sodium consumed by Canadians from 3,400 milligrams per day to 2,300 milligrams per day, by 2016. Our government, along with provincial and territorial governments, endorsed this recommendation back in September 2010.

The bill also proposes that consumers be alerted to additional mandatory labels on packaged foods with sodium content that is above “target levels”. Again, this is not one of the recommendations of the working group, and for good reason. By focusing on a warning label just for sodium, Canadians could be misled into believing that sodium is the only nutrient about which they need to be educated. It is overall diets that have the greatest impacts on health, not any one food or nutrient.

This government has developed a number of tools to help Canadians make informed decisions about the foods they eat. This includes mandatory nutrition labelling for most packaged foods. There are also set criteria for phrases such as “low in sodium”, “salt-free” and “reduced in sodium”. These phrases can be used on food labels to help consumers identify foods that are lower in sodium.

Our government has invested $4 million for new activities as part of the healthy eating and awareness initiative. The goal is to help Canadians move towards healthier diets, which includes supporting them in reducing sodium intake.

The sodium working group recognized the importance of engaging all stakeholders, as does our government. However, this bill has overlooked this critical component of a strong sodium reduction strategy. Governments, Canadians and industry have important roles to play.

This bill proposes the establishment of an independent sodium reduction committee that excludes the food industry from the committee. This exemption would limit the successive activities already in progress and undermine the spirit of the working group's recommendations.

What we currently have in place is the food expert advisory committee. This committee has been extended to ad hoc members with expertise in areas of sodium to provide advice to this government on sodium issues. Members include some members from the former sodium working group, as well as some new experts.

Finally, the bill proposes that industry be required to report the sodium content in prepackaged food so that a public registry of this information could be established and maintained. We have heard about registries before. As has been previously stated, this registry would be ineffective. The cost to taxpayers to implement these measures would be significant. Maintaining a public registry for the 100,000 prepackaged food products sold in Canada would require considerable new resources and additional regulations and red tape. Again, this bill's proposed sodium registry was not recommended by the sodium working group.

Before I summarize, I want to point out that budget 2012, which both opposition parties voted against, contained measures which were in fact recommended by the working group and the red tape reduction committee. Both called for a streamlined approval for food additives, and budget 2012 delivered. I would point out that the opposition did not support those proposals.

Mr. Speaker, please allow me to summarize. The bill unnecessarily regulates mandatory sodium limits in prepackaged food. This is not consistent with the working group's recommendations. Our government is advancing a voluntary approach to sodium reduction, just as the working group recommended. The bill calls for misleading warning labels on foods that exceed sodium limits. This is not one of the sodium reduction strategy recommendations.

Our government will continue to take into account the full diet of Canadians in its approach to nutrition labelling and awareness and education initiatives, so that Canadians can make informed choices about the food they eat. My family and I read food labels all the time. I know it is simple to say and it may be tough to do, but if Canadians would simply take that one step before they put something in their shopping cart, we could avoid the necessity for bills such as the one proposed.

The bill would legislate the creation of an advisory committee that excludes the food industry. This is not in line with the sodium reduction strategy recommendation to take a multi-stakeholder approach. Our government will continue to seek the expertise of all stakeholders regarding sodium reduction initiatives.

If the bill is in fact to support the recommendations of the sodium working group, as the opposition claims, it has failed to meet that objective. It took a team of stakeholders nearly three years to develop the sodium reduction strategy for Canada. We are making progress, but time is needed to reach our sodium reduction goals. That is why provincial and territorial health ministers agreed to a 2016 deadline.

In closing, I cannot support this bill. It is not consistent with what the experts have recommended. It increases costs for Canadians and red tape for industry in its heavy-handed proposal for a wasteful and ineffective sodium registry, just like the other wasteful and ineffective registries we have finally taken off the backs of Canadians.

It is unnecessary because our approach is working. My hope would be that all members of the House will continue to work with our government on this important file. We will continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders to reduce the sodium intake of Canadians. By increasing education, awareness and guidance to the industry, we believe it is the balanced approach that will deliver results.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if the Minister of Health ate All-Bran this morning, she ingested six times more salt than if she had filled her bowl in the United States.

This evening, if the minister stops at Burger King on her way home, which I do not recommend, her onion ring will contain three times more salt than one of Uncle Sam's. Why? Because Canadian regulations are just not good enough when it comes to sodium.

The Minister of Health said that my party is “soft on crime and hard on chips”. I would like to point out that, according to Statistics Canada, there were 598 homicides in Canada in 2011. If we can reduce Canadians' daily sodium intake to just 1,800 milligrams, we will be able to prevent between 10,000 and 16,000 deaths every year. Obviously, we cannot put chips in jail. The Conservatives would be well advised to reconsider their approach, just as they have done for crime.

Canadians are asking us for smart, effective regulation. That is exactly what Bill C-460 has to offer. I hope that the Conservatives care about Canadians' health enough to support the bill.

The Minister of Health has accused us of trying to introduce more red tape. I do not see how a government that loses track of $3 billion spent on anti-terrorism legislation can deny the importance of a strict regulatory framework. This is not about adding more red tape. This is about saving lives and helping Canadians live longer lives among their loved ones.

Three billion dollars. That is how much money the Conservatives managed to lose between the couch cushions. Coincidentally, that is also exactly how much money Canada would save if we reduced daily sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams. Why slash people's retirement income when it is so easy to save money by investing in their health?

Salt is everywhere. Now that Canadians have to work more than ever to make ends meet because of ill-advised Conservative cuts that are slowing our economy down, they have to eat salt in restaurants, frozen meals and cafeterias. All of the prepared food we buy every day because we do not have time to cook is full of salt. It would be cheap and easy to address this problem by forcing companies to label foods as high in sodium.

That is exactly what Bill C-460 is proposing, and that would of course have a positive impact on the market.

This bill is very sensible. It is not rooted in a political agenda, but rather in recommendations by experts, particularly recommendations provided by the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada, published by a working group set up in 2007, but which was dismantled by the current minister in 2011. Was the working group too bureaucratic?

The minister must have known that the strategy was supported by the provinces, territories and health organizations. The government must stop making budget cuts everywhere and start doing what a government is elected to do, which is to serve the public.

People are asking us for a tough policy to force companies to reduce sodium levels and inform consumers properly.

A recent survey shows that 76% of Canadians want warning labels on products that are high in sodium. That is almost twice the number of people who elected the Conservatives in the last election. A majority of Canadians agree that government intervention is needed to reduce the sodium levels in our food.

Sometimes it is funny to see how much the Conservatives hide behind their open market ideology when they do not want to disturb the agri-food industry, and how heavy-handed they can be when it comes to stealing from the unemployed.

Where do the Conservatives stand? Are they tough on people and soft on industry? Canadians are not fools. They want what is being done elsewhere and what is being recommended by all the proper authorities.

Finland is a good example because it has been regulating salt consumption since 1979. Through simple labeling, Finland has managed to convince a number of companies to reduce the amount of sodium in their products, which has helped citizens become more aware of what they are consuming. The outcome is that, in 1979, the average daily sodium intake dropped from 5,000 mg to 3,300 mg.

Since 2004, the World Health Organization has issued a number of reports and held many forums on the importance of reducing sodium. In 2010, the World Health Organization met with the government, but clearly the WHO did not get the attention it needed. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, criticizes Canada in his report that followed his May 2012 visit.

According to Mr. De Schutter, Canada is not doing enough to discourage the consumption of foods high in saturated fat, sugar and sodium. He even added that it was unfortunate that Quebec is the only province to ban advertising directed at children under the age of 13.

How did the Prime Minister respond? He called the man a lazy intellectual and said his findings were ridiculous. Given their tendency to mock the most reliable multilateral organizations in the world and to refuse to listen to what Canadians want, the Conservatives could very well wind up all alone in their tiny ideological universe.

It is time to put an end to this schizophrenic governance and start operating like a democratic government. That is why I invite all members across the floor to support Bill C-460, which will finally allow Canada to show some leadership in the fight against sodium.

In closing, I would remind the House that malnutrition causes nearly 50,000 deaths a year in Canada, 20 times more than the number of deaths on our roads. After the fight against tobacco use, the fight against sodium is the most direct and effective way to reduce preventable deaths in Canada—yes, I said “preventable”.

Our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children and even grandparents will enjoy better, longer lives if we all support Bill C-460. That is what Canadians expect from their House of Commons, and they deserve nothing less.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, World Salt Awareness Week falls between March 11 and 17. However, unlike last year, there does not appear to be a record on Health Canada's website of the Minister of Health issuing a statement on the importance of reducing salt in the diet of Canadians. That is perhaps because of the fear of potential blowback for the Conservative government's killing of this important bill, which would implement the recommendations of the previous Conservative health minister's sodium working group.

The minister's reason for killing the bill is, wait for it, not a $21-billion tax but a $48-billion tax. Perhaps the government would be good enough to table, for all members of this House, who did the calculations for the tax, the method that was used and the results obtained. Perhaps, at the same time, the government would also table the health costs of chronic diseases that are linked to consuming too much salt.

In her statement on salt last year, the Minister of Health said:

On average we eat more than double the amount we need for good health.... It is important for Canadians to remember that consuming too much sodium is a risk factor for high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke and is also linked to other diseases such as stomach cancer, osteoporosis and kidney disease.

She continued:

As Minister of Health, I want to help Canadians avoid these health risks by promoting the adoption of a healthy diet that is low in sodium.

Therefore, it is clear that the minister understands the problem, yet thinks it is funny to say the bill is “...tough on potato chips”. It is not funny to a family struggling to control blood pressure, and not funny to a family battling heart disease or stroke. More distasteful still is the fact that once again she is prepared to put industry before the health of Canadians. Specifically, the minister is refusing to reduce the average sodium intake from about 3,400 milligrams per person per day to 2,300 milligrams by 2016. Health Canada's own recommended daily intake level for sodium is just 1,500 milligrams. The minister's own sodium working group estimated that a decrease in the average sodium intake to about 1,800 milligrams per day, still above Health Canada's recommendation, would prevent 23,500 cardiovascular disease events every year, and would save $1.4 billion per year in health care costs.

The Minister of Health is also refusing a consumer education campaign, a monitoring plan and public database to track if individual food products meet specific reduction targets, and new regulations to force companies to use uniform serving sizes and the nutritional facts on food. Why did this health minister disband the sodium working group at the end of 2010? Why did the minister fail to endorse a federal-provincial sodium reduction plan at the health ministers' meeting in Halifax in November 2011? Why is this minister ignoring the overwhelming scientific evidence?

The reality is that this private member's bill is supported by the Canadian Medical Association and 40 other groups and experts, including: the Canadian Institute of Child Health; Canadian Nurses Association; Canadian Pharmacists Association; Canadian Public Health Association; Canadian Society of Internal Medicine; Canadian Women's Health Network; Dieticians of Canada; Food Secure Canada; Hypertension Canada; Kidney Foundation of Canada; and Public Health Physicians of Canada.

The Canadian Medical Association stated:

The Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada Act is an important piece of legislation that can lead to healthier lives for all Canadia2 Parliament support it.

The Canadian Medical Association also very clearly stated:

Canadians consume on average 3,400 milligrams of sodium daily, well above recommended levels. High sodium levels in food are responsible for almost one-third of hypertension cases in Canada. Hypertension is a major cause of heart disease (heart attack and heart failure), stroke and kidney failure, and is an important contributor to premature death, disability and health care costs in Canada. It is estimated that 7.5 million Canadians have been diagnosed with this chronic condition, with an estimated 1,100 new patients being added every day.

Dr. Norm Campbell, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research chair in hypertension prevention and control, said:

The bill provides concrete measures for reducing the amount of salt food processors add to food. The measures proposed in the Bill include close government monitoring and oversight and mandatory labelling of foods that fail to comply with sodium targets. If passed, Bill C-460 will for the first time provide Canadians an opportunity to even know if they are even making a healthy or unhealthy food choice.

Canadians should be asking broader questions. Why did the minister quash trans fats recommendations in 2009 and again in 2012? Why did she ignore the advice regarding caffeinated energy drinks? Why did the minister immediately shoot down the idea of the Institute of Medicine's report, sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling for a fundamental shift in the way companies were allowed to present certain nutritional information on the front of food packages? Where is the leadership?

It is outrageous that the government would resort to invoking fear in Canadians to kill this bill. We heard from a government member who said:

—the bill would pose many challenges. While unintentional, implementing the bill may potentially have negative impacts on food safety and health; I repeat, negative impacts on food safety and health.

The member suggested that reducing salt and sodium-containing food additives to levels still higher than Health Canada's own recommended limits might affect preservation.

The member did not stop there, saying, “The bill simply does not anticipate the food safety consequences that this could create”.

Equally ludicrous is the government's argument that a warning label for sodium could be very misleading to Canadians, even though the government's own approach has been to encourage healthy eating through positive messaging, awareness and education activities.

I would like to finish by bringing some reality to the government's position and arguments.

On average, adult Canadians consume about 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day. This is significantly above recommended levels. Health Canada and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences have determined that the tolerable upper intake level for adults is 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. Of most of the sodium Canadians consume, 77% comes from processed foods sold in grocery stores and in food service outlets. Only about 11% is added during preparation at the table, with the remainder occurring naturally in foods, hence, showing the fundamental flaw in the parliamentary secretary's comments regarding a salt shaker.

In some people, too much sodium causes blood pressure to rise. High blood pressure increases risks for heart disease and stroke. About six million adult Canadians have high blood pressure or hypertension, the leading risk for death in the world, the number one risk factor for stroke and a major risk factor for heart disease.

It has been estimated that excess sodium intake is responsible for one million hypertension cases in Canada today. Dietary sodium reduction could eliminate hypertension for over a million Canadians, with a resulting savings of at least $430 million annually in direct high blood pressure management costs alone.

A recent study in the United States shows reducing salt intake by three grams per day would save the country up to $24 billion in health care costs a year. Even a modest reduction of one gram per day between 2010 and 2019 would be more cost-effective than using medications to lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.

Is it not time that Canada's Minister of Health acted, not ignored experts and stonewalled?

The House resumed from February 1, consideration of the motion that Bill C-460, An Act respecting the implementation of the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Health

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, first, I too would like to present petitions today in support of Bill C-460. The petitioners support the sodium reduction strategy for Canada act to ensure that the amount of sodium in the Canadian food supply is reduced to safe levels.

The petitioners are calling upon the House to ensure the swift passage of Bill C-460, which we will be debating at the end of this week and voting on next week. I hope it goes through.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from a number of constituents in my riding who are supporting Bill C-460, sodium reduction strategy for Canada act.

The petitioners are concerned with a number of things, which include: improving the method of communicating information about sodium to consumers, especially on food labels; ensuring public funds are not spent on high-sodium foods; ensuring that the strategy oversight is free from conflict of interest; preventing children from being targeted by commercial marketing for high-sodium foods; mandating annual progress reports from the Government of Canada to Parliament; and establishing the Government of Canada as a leader in sodium reduction goals and monitoring.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this petition is calling for support for the sodium reduction strategy for Canada act, and wants to establish the Government of Canada as the leader in monitoring and ensuring progress is made by food companies to achieve sodium reduction goals. The petitioners ask that we have swift passage of private members' bill, Bill C-460, an act respecting the implementation of the sodium reduction strategy for Canada.

Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada Act

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I have listened with interest to the other members who have spoke in the House and I agree with the member for Vancouver East, as does the government, that the average sodium intake in Canada is definitely higher than it should be.

We are committed to the goal of lowering sodium intake from 3,400 milligrams per day to 2,300 milligrams per day by 2016. I am happy to report that early studies indicate that we are already on track toward reaching this goal without heavy-handed legislation or regulations. That is why I do not support this bill.

The Government of Canada currently takes a voluntary multi-stakeholder approach to sodium reduction, as recommended by the report, “Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada”. Despite, the call from Bill C-460 to implement this report, the bill does not follow the report's key recommendations. It fails to capitalize on the benefits of the current collaborative approach and would increase burden to industry through new legislative and regulatory measures. The bill may also pose risks to food safety and health and carries financial cost to government, industry and Canadians. The measures proposed in the bill ignore the shared responsibility in reducing sodium intake in Canada. For sodium reduction efforts to be effective, responsibility must be shared among Canadians, the food industry and federal, provincial and territorial governments.

Industry has accepted the challenge of reducing sodium levels, while maintaining food safety and consumer acceptance. In fact, industry has responded to the demands of Canadians and is putting more healthy choices onto the Canadian marketplace. We are already seeing positive progress toward meeting the sodium reduction targets. Data recently collected from a sample of breads, breakfast cereals and canned soup shows that sodium levels have been reduced by 10% overall in these product categories. This is one-third of the way to the 2016 goal.

The fact is that these early achievements have been made without the heavy-handed measures proposed by the bill. Why change things now? We are on the road to recovery, as it were.

As Canadians, we have a critical role as well. It is the responsibility of all of us as individuals to become aware of nutrition issues and what is in our food so we can take more informed choices when we are the grocery store, when we eat at home or when we eat out. However, health is not just about eating; it is also about exercise and fitness.

Finally, this government's role, along with provincial and territorial governments, is to help promote the healthier choice as the easiest choice for Canadians. We do this through a three pillar approach that includes awareness and education for Canadians, guidance to industry and research.

The Government of Canada's current approach to sodium reduction strikes the right balance and respects the responsibilities of all stakeholders. Let me describe some of the work that our government is doing.

As members know, in 2010, our government launched the healthy eating awareness and education initiative to raise Canadians' awareness about the benefits of healthy eating. The goal is to help inform Canadians so they can choose a healthier choice. This initiative promotes plain language messages about healthy eating, sodium reduction and healthy weights for Canadians.

The first two years concentrated on the Nutrition Facts Education Campaign, with a focus on percent daily value. The percent daily value can help Canadians determine if a specific amount of food has a little or a lot of a nutrient, such as sodium. This government has used innovative ways to deliver this campaign with the collaboration of Food & Consumer Products of Canada and its member companies.

Public opinion research results have shown an increase of 5% in the use of the nutrition facts table over a two-year period. In addition, almost half of those surveyed said that having nutritional information available had influenced the decisions they made when buying food.

The Eat Well Campaign was launched in September 2012 and includes messages on sodium reduction. Early findings show consistent positive indicators of intent to change behaviour. The Eat Well Campaign continues to work with the provinces and territories, non-governmental organizations, health professionals and retailers as we move forward.

This demonstrates that, while still in the early stages, the current approach is working. That is why this government continues to collaborate with various stakeholders and has done so recently to develop guidance to industry to reduce sodium in processed foods.

The Government of Canada released guidance for the food industry on reducing sodium in processed foods in June of 2012. The bill proposes that this guidance be put into regulation. This is unnecessary. Health Canada's guidance notes specific sodium level benchmarks for processed food categories. It is intended to serve as a guide for the food industry to reduce sodium in its products. This will help Canadians reach the 2016 average sodium intake goals.

If passed, the bill would require that benchmark levels set out in the guidance become mandatory limits, with warnings on labels for any prepackaged foods that exceeded these levels. However, the benchmarks are based upon averages for entire food categories, such breads or cereals. They were not designed to apply to individual foods.

As a result, the requirement for labelling of individual products with warnings stating that the food does not meet Health Canada's sodium reduction targets would be misleading to Canadians and go against the intended purpose of such a label. Furthermore, the guidance cannot be put into regulation as it is simply not possible to enforce an average.

In addition, the bill does not take into consideration food safety or food categories such as prosciutto, which are not expected to follow guidance given the nature of the product.

Indeed, the bill would pose many challenges. While unintentional, implementing the bill may potentially have negative impacts on food safety and health; I repeat, negative impacts on food safety and health. Salt- and sodium-containing food additives play important roles in the preservation of numerous foods, such as processed meats and cheese.

The bill's 90-day coming into force period would require a rapid reduction of sodium. The bill simply does not anticipate the food safety consequences that this could create. For products that cannot meet the sodium levels within the short timelines proposed by the bill, warning labels would be required. These warning labels could very well have negative health impacts that the bill, again, would not address.

A warning label for sodium alone could be very misleading to Canadians. Sodium is not the only nutrient that needs to be considered when trying to make healthier choices. A product without a sodium warning label may be perceived as a healthy choice, but may not actually contain the nutrients required to support a healthy diet.

Warning labels on foods may not achieve the desired health benefits and may not be appropriate, as risk is not associated with consumption of a single food or nutrient but, rather, overall consumption patterns.

This government's approach has been to encourage healthy eating through positive messaging, awareness and education activities, as I have described, not through unnecessary and misleading warning labels. Almost all prepackaged foods already require a nutrition facts label that has nutrient information, including the amount of sodium preserving. This table gives Canadians the information they need to make informed choices.

Finally, the bill would impose a considerable and unnecessary regulatory and administrative burden on the government and on industry. To illustrate, there are upwards of 100,000 prepackaged foods on the Canadian market, and each of these products would fall under the requirement to provide the Minister of Health with information on sodium content. A public registry would have to be established to communicate this information. This enforcement cost would be significant and would require new resources. The added compliance burden to industry would also be significant. This could result in costs being passed on to Canadians. In addition, it is unclear what the database would be used for.

As I stated earlier, a food low in sodium is not necessarily a healthy food. It would be inappropriate and misleading for people to use a registry that did not present the complete nutritional picture as a guide to healthy and unhealthy foods.

Multi-stakeholder efforts to reduce sodium intake in Canada are still in the early stages, and despite this, we are starting to see progress. It will take time for the food industry to adjust its products so they continue to be safe and acceptable to Canadians. While promoting sodium reduction is worthwhile, the bill fails to make the case for changing course now to take on such a heavy-headed expense of an unnecessary approach.

For all of these reasons, I cannot support the bill. It is my belief that the majority of the House would agree.

While it is well intentioned, I do not think that all the factual information has been examined. We do not want to take a heavy-handed approach. We want to do as we did with trans fats. We did this voluntary approach in trans fats. It worked. Now the trans fat issue looks very good compared to the way it looked before. We are doing the same thing with sodium intake.

This is an issue that our government takes very seriously, but we want it to work out. We believe that this voluntary approach will work.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to add to the discussion about Bill C-460, which was introduced by my colleague from Vancouver East. She is the opposition health critic. I wholeheartedly support this bill, which aims to implement the sodium reduction strategy for Canada.

Sodium intake is a serious public health issue in Canada. Health Canada has made recommendations for sodium intake. The recommended daily intake is 1,500 milligrams for an adult under the age of 50. The average Canadian has a sodium intake of about 3,400 milligrams, or more than double the daily recommendation. The department goes so far as to set a tolerable upper intake level of 2,300 milligrams. Without question, Canadians are consuming too much sodium, and we are far exceeding the target amounts.

The government has a role to play, but it also has everything to gain. Excess sodium is eating away at the health of Canadians. Reducing sodium intake to 1,800 milligrams a day would reduce the number of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, by 23,500. High sodium intake is also a significant factor in hypertension, as we all know.

Hypertension in Canada has reached a worrisome level. Forty percent of Canadians have hypertension or prehypertension. A decrease in sodium intake would reduce the number of cases by 30% and could prevent between 10,000 and 16,000 deaths a year. These are alarming figures that require immediate action.

Clearly, these preventable deaths, these cardiovascular diseases and this hypertension epidemic have a significant human cost. The main reason I support this bill is to prevent these human tragedies.

There is also an economic cost. A study found that, if Canadians reduced their personal sodium intake level to 1,500 mg per day, it would save our health care system an estimated $1.38 billion. Including indirect costs, these savings could reach $3 billion. By reducing our sodium intake, we could improve our health and save a significant amount of money. How can one oppose virtue?

Many people are wondering about this topic and why we should have this strategy. Why not launch an awareness campaign so that Canadians stop adding salt to their food? The reason is simple: reducing salt added at the table will not solve the problem since 77% of the salt Canadians consume is from processed and prepackaged food. Salt from food in its original and natural form and salt added at the table represent only 23% of Canadians' daily sodium intake. We therefore have to make improvements in areas where it will have an impact.

The bill's strategy is nothing new. The same strategy was proposed in 2010 by the sodium working group, which was put in place by this government in 2007. This working group was—it has since been dismantled by the minister—made up of representatives of the food processing and food service sectors, non-governmental organizations focused on health, scientific and consumer groups, health professional organizations and various government departments and agencies. It was a very inclusive group made up of all the key stakeholders in the field. This group came up with and recommended the strategy that was presented in 2010 and that is found in my colleague's bill.

What measures will be taken as a result of this bill?

First of all, let us be clear. This bill will not take any products off the shelves. Products containing more sodium than the amount recommended by Health Canada will have to be clearly labelled. This will help consumers make healthier choices. No one will stop individuals from buying an item containing too much sodium. With this bill, consumers will simply be better informed.

I recently came across an issue of the publication put out by the Association francophone des parents du Nouveau-Brunswick. It had a two-page article on the problem of sodium in our food. The point I want to make here is that the article had a four-point sidebar on how to read labels to better understand them, particularly when it comes to sodium content. This example alone illustrates just how much we need a better, simpler labelling system that consumers can rely on in order to make informed choices.

Obviously, the voluntary approach that the government has espoused for the past 20 years is not working. Very few food companies have reduced the amount of salt in their foods, and Canadians' salt intake has not gone down. In Australia, a similar approach has actually resulted in a 9% increase in sodium intake rather than a decrease. A recently published American report found that, used alone, a voluntary approach was ineffective over a period of 40 years.

I am sure that that is one of the reasons why many groups of health professionals and health experts support this bill and the need for a national sodium reduction strategy. Three of them are based in Quebec: the Quebec Coalition on Weight-Related Problems, the Council for Food Progress Initiatives, and Louise Vandelac, director of the UQAM's Institute of Environmental Sciences.

Also supporting this initiative are the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Pharmacists Association and Public Health Physicians of Canada. These groups and associations are on the front lines. They see the devastating effects of high sodium intake, and they want to make sure that consumers have access to healthy food and information to help them make good choices.

The World Health Organization has published several reports on the importance of reducing sodium intake. The 2012 United Nations report on food revealed that Canada was not doing enough to discourage the consumption of foods high in sodium.

We have to do better for Canadians. These are simple measures recommended by the government's sodium working group, a group made up of representatives from many walks of life. There is no reason for the government not to take these simple and important measures to improve the health of Canadians.