Bill S-5 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Tobacco Act and the Non-smokers’ Health Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

Part 1 of this enactment amends the Tobacco Act. In order to respond to the report of the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Health entitled Vaping: Toward a Regulatory Framework for E-Cigarettes, it amends the Act to regulate the manufacture, sale, labelling and promotion of vaping products and changes the title of the Act accordingly. It also amends certain provisions of the Act relating to tobacco products, including with respect to product standards, disclosure of product information, product sale, sending and delivery and product promotion. The schedule to the Act is amended to add menthol and cloves as prohibited additives in all tobacco products. As well, it adds new provisions to the Act, including in respect of inspection and seizure.
Part 1 also makes consequential amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act.
Part 2 of this enactment amends the Non-smokers’ Health Act to regulate the use of vaping products in the federal workplace and on certain modes of transportation.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

There are two amendments here—NDP-2 and NDP-3. Just so that my colleagues can follow this, they're split over two clauses. Essentially the purpose of both together is to provide regulatory authority to the ministry to require health warnings on cigarettes and other tobacco products. Bill S-5 already provides this authority for vaping products, so already the bill says you can put health warnings directly on a vaping product. I think the reasoning applies with equal force to providing the regulatory authority to do so for tobacco products. Certainly the regulatory authority for warnings should not be less on tobacco products than it is on vaping products.

Among the benefits of this amendment is that it would respond to concerns regarding contraband. It would provide a marking, thus identifying product intended for legitimate sale in Canada. This approach is referenced in international guidelines under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The proposed amendment also arose from testimony from the Canadian Cancer Society and the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control.

What I will say, colleagues, is that in my preparation for these hearings, from the witnesses, and in a lot of information I've received from people working on tobacco control in this country, I heard that it's about making sure smokers can actually see the warnings in a prominent place. That's very critical to bringing the message home to smokers that we want to bring home to them. That's why the flip packages and the ability to pull out a warning on a piece of paper and throw it away are considered undesirable. We want to make sure people can see it.

I want to be clear: this doesn't say that the warnings have to be on tobacco products, but it provides regulatory authority to do so. I personally think that having a warning on the tobacco product itself, which I know is an innovation, is something that would increase the effectiveness of health warnings, and perhaps even bring information to the smoker. It may not necessarily be a negative warning, although it probably would be—a warning like “This product contains carcinogens” right on the cigarette. It could also have positive messages, perhaps encouraging the use of vaping products as a harm-reduction measure as well.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

The amendment is that Bill S-5, in clause 18, be amended by replacing line 36 on page 12 to line 17 on page 13 with the following:

product, means (a) that the product (i) contains a drug that is set out in the prescription drug list, as amended from time to time, established under subsection 29 .1 (I) of the Food and Drugs Act, or a drug that is part of a class of drugs that is set out in that list, and (ii) is the subject of an authorization issued under that Act authorizing its sale; or (b) that the product contains a controlled substance, as defined in subsection 2(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the sale or provision of which is authorized under that Act.

What that does is allow for decisions to be made, although currently there aren't necessarily any prescription products that are included for vaping. There's some research in the United States on that, and there may be some prescription products coming up that could be administered by a vaping product. This would allow the regulators to authorize the use of this substance if something comes up that is found to be beneficial and can be given in a prescription.

[James Van Loon, Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate, Department of Health]

Sure thing. No, cannabis products are not covered in this act. They are carved out. There's an amendment in here that puts one final little detail on making sure that those interfaces are correct, but no.

Secondly, on heat sticks, yes. They are covered by the definition of tobacco product as it is amended in S-5. S-5 has an amendment to the definition of tobacco product such that—and I'm going to paraphrase a little bit—devices that are necessary for the consumption of a tobacco product are also tobacco products, and they are covered.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

We'll call our meeting to order. This is meeting 94 of the Standing Committee on Health, pursuant to the order of reference on Tuesday, January 30, 2018, Bill S-5, an act to amend the Tobacco Act and the Non-smokers' Health Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts. We're here to do clause-by-clause.

I'd like to introduce our witnesses who are our resource panel whom we will call on when we get in real trouble. Mr. James Van Loon, director general, tobacco control directorate; Denis Choinière, director, tobacco products regulatory office; Anne-Marie LeBel, legal counsel; and Saira David, director, tobacco labelling division and plain and standardized packaging division.

Thank you very much for coming. We'll be calling on you as we need you.

I have notice of a point of order.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

When she was here on Bill S-5, my colleagues and I had some questions about health care spending and related things, but we restricted our questions to Bill S-5. I would prefer to have a chance to ask her more questions. Some of the questions we have are more general, on spending for health initiatives. We could ask them in regard to the supplementary estimates, so I'd prefer to keep that date.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Okay.

Second, at our last meeting there was a proposal to invite the Minister of Health to come to present for supplementary estimates. I'm just looking back through the schedule again. We've just had her in for Bill S-5. The budget's coming down tomorrow. We'll be having her here shortly after that for main estimates. We can certainly cover off any questions we had for the supplementary estimates at that time. We have a ton on anyway. We have pharmacare to finish, Bill C-326, AMR, Bill S-228, and resumption of the food guide and whatever we're going to do with that. We have a really packed agenda.

I would like to move that we rescind our invitation to the minister and instead invite her to attend the main estimates when those are scheduled.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you.

That's my concern. Is it two o'clock tomorrow that the amendments for Bill S-5 are due?

[The Clerk]

Sure. The volume of documents we've received on Bill S-5 has been something else. You mean Sinclair Davidson's brief, correct?

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you, Chair. I have a question for the clerk.

Ms. Finley asked for two things to be sent out on Bill S-5 that she had sent in. One went out, but the Davidson report didn't go out. If you can circulate it, that would be good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Yes, it's now Tuesday at 2 p.m. It was Tuesday at noon.

Then we go to Thursday, March 1. That's the deadline for witnesses for Bill C-326. On Friday, we intend to report Bill S-5 to the House. On the 19th we intend to have supplementary estimates with the department. On the 21st, we have the adoption of the pharmacare report, and Mr. Oliver was just showing me that the Minister of Health from Ontario has resigned so he can study a national pharmacare program.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

There are just a couple of things on the calendar.

Clause-by-clause study for Bill S-5 is on Wednesday, and we need amendments by 2 p.m. Wednesday. It was originally 12 p.m., but we moved that to 2 p.m., so you get two extra hours.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony here today and for coming to Ottawa discuss Bill S-5 with us. It's very much appreciated.

It seems to me that there's a bit of tension in the bill. One objective of the bill is to encourage people who are smoking to give up using cigarettes to get their nicotine dosage and to move to vaping. The second intent, which I think is the more important one, is to move the next generation of Canadians away from using nicotine and to stop the addiction cycle. I'm personally really excited that we're reaching a point where we may be able to begin to significantly reduce the rates of nicotine addiction in Canada.

The numbers I've heard are that somewhere between 85% and 95% of people who take nicotine will become addicted to it, so it is a very additive substance. Because the health impacts of smoking are so dire, I don't think we really understand the impact of chronic nicotine usage over a period of time, because people really do struggle with the health impact of smoking, which is so much more dramatic.

Ms. Doucas, you mentioned concerns. We heard the same thing from the Cancer Society. They wanted to make sure that lifestyle advertising was not permitted with vaping, and the minister was quite clear that she would support an amendment to that effect, so we're dealing now with brand promotion only.

The second issue that you raised was location, and the Cancer Society likewise raised location. I came across an August 2017 Health Canada consultation document, a proposal for the regulation of vaping products, which advises that they intend to use regulations to limit advertising for vaping products in or near locations that are attended predominantly by youth, such as schools, parks, and recreational and sporting facilities. There would also be restrictions placed on advertising in certain media, as well as a prohibition on advertisements on television and radio during certain times of day, and that kind of thing.

With the amendment the minister said she'd endorse and if the regulations deal with location, do you feel that we're doing enough to protect our youth from being drawn to vaping products and to nicotine through vaping?

[Flory Doucas]

I think we should be concentrating on nicotine vaping devices, because nicotine is the basis of an epidemic that's killing 45,000 Canadians. That said, the legislation, Bill S-5 as it is written currently, covers the e-liquids or the accessories regardless of whether they have nicotine or not.

[Flory Doucas]

The Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control doesn't have a position on cannabis. We're part of the Quebec Public Health Association, and there is a project and spokespersons for cannabis. That being said, our understanding currently is that the nicotine vaping devices are illegal and the ones that don't contain nicotine were legal, but in practice, we saw all kinds of things happening.

We believe that the comprehensive approach to regulating these products would be to cover both, whether they contain nicotine or not. Please consider the fact that Bill S-5 applies the same provisions to the device as to the liquid, for example.

I think you're alluding to the fact that we are looking to eventually move people away from smoking cannabis to perhaps consuming it in different forms....

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Dr. Strang, do you know if Bill S-5 will regulate vaping? This is what I'm trying to drive at: is it specific to nicotine or tobacco vaping, or is it the vaping of substances generally, including cannabis? Do you know?