Mr. Chair, first of all, this does seem to be similar to Madame Gagnon's motion, so I wonder if we're going to end up talking about this over and over again.
In regard to the food guide, just so we are all clear, extensive consultation activities have been undertaken as far as the revision process is concerned. The activities included two rounds of cross-country meetings with over 1,000 stakeholders and an on-line consultation involving over 6,000 respondents.
Health Canada is reviewing lists of stakeholders consulted during those meetings and lists of stakeholders who were invited to participate in the on-line consultation in order to determine whether it has permission to release any personal information on the lists, and we will get back to the committee on that. The synthesis of the report and questions from the on-line consultation and meetings will also be available.
Now, this has been a three-year revision process and it's nearing the end. There is currently a finalizing of the revised guide with, hopefully, a release date shortly, and the department will be pleased to share the guide with the committee at that time.
This has turned into a very complex exercise. A comprehensive strategy to deal with childhood obesity is partly why we are studying this issue as a committee. However, I think we have to be practical here, as with government, we do delegate these types of activities to officials and departments. I agree it's important for the committee to have the opportunity to question and ensure that the process and consultation have been undertaken.
However, as I mentioned at the last meeting, if we get into this, a camel is a racehorse designed by the committee. It's not going to be perfect, but it'll be better than what we have. So it would be most appropriate to leave it up to the experts, and they are the people in Health Canada who have developed it.