Another area of focus critical for business stability and confidence is safeguarding confidential business information. In June this House passed Bill C-17, which modernizes Canada's Food and Drugs Act. To be clear, we support the principles, objectives, and direction of Bill C-17, as it essentially codifies the manner in which our members already work with Health Canada to ensure and promote patient safety. However, we are concerned about last minute amendments made to the bill prior to its passage by the House, which deal with the standard for disclosing confidential business information or CBI.
As currently written, CBI in the bill is understood broadly to include business information that is not publicly available. It is information that has economic value to a business or its competitors but may not be related to patient safety. Rx and D is strongly supportive of providing the Minister of Health with specific powers to respond to the threats to the health of Canadians, which may include circumstances where it is essential to disclose CBI to address an imminent and serious risk to human health without notice or consent. Indeed, this is the approach in the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act and the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act. The threshold in both of these acts permits disclosure only when the risk is serious and imminent. Using these acts as benchmarks, we think the language in Bill C-17 is problematic and imprecise. It is also inconsistent with the benchmark used by the FDA and the EMA. We have amendments that we can talk to you about during our closing our remarks.