Evidence of meeting #24 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cure.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
NDP
5 p.m.
NDP
Penny Priddy NDP Surrey North, BC
Well, as a member of the committee, I am not suggesting that having this information means we're going to start rewriting the food guide from square one. But it is clear that there have been some questions that have been raised by a number of people along the way. This will either reassure some people that some areas they're concerned about were covered, or if there's something absolutely glaring for people and there are enough people who think that there's a glaring piece missing that's been raised by witnesses and is also of concern to committee members, it can be flagged.
Perhaps people can have that part of the discussion, or see if indeed the piece about aboriginal people, or whatever, is reflected in the kind of respectful way that people would like, or includes that.
I don't think anybody is suggesting we should try to rewrite the food guide, because we're a bunch of folks who couldn't do that. But we are politicians, we do listen to people in our communities, and for all I know it may reassure people and they may never raise it again.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Okay, fine. I think we have exhausted this. We went around a considerable amount.... Okay, Ms. Fry, very quickly.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
Sorry, I don't think you've exhausted it, because I really want to—
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Oh, we exhausted it before this meeting, actually.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
I think it's important. I don't think we're trying to rewrite the food guide, but having been on the other end of this divide many years ago when I was very involved with the British Columbia Medical Association on health promotion and disease prevention, I will tell you now that the process of consultation through Health Canada has always been wanting.
One would get something sent to you two weeks before it was supposed be distributed, and two weeks before it was supposed to be the final draft, and one would never have the opportunity to give really good input. I think 14 years is a long time. To rewrite a food guide, which may not be changed for the next 14 years, and to take it only from the point of view that we take into consideration a lot of the points made in these other pieces of information that we get, I think we need to be assured, as parliamentarians, that appropriate consultation was given, that all of the new information about dietary factors is taken into consideration in the food guide.
It's not that we want to rewrite the food guide, but basically to upgrade on the old ways of doing things. When we know things about fibre and saturated fats and dairy produce that we didn't know a long time ago, we need to really be assured that we are writing a food guide that is appropriate for preventing disease.
We talked here today about type 1 diabetes, but there's also type 2 diabetes. We talk about childhood obesity. We talk about sugar and pop and those kinds of things. None of those are discussed in the food guide. So we need to be assured, as parliamentarians, not that we rewrite the guide ourselves but that the appropriate consultation was given, that what is going to eventually be the map for Canadians to eat in the future is one that is done according to today's scientific information and knowledge.
We only want to make sure that the process was followed, and if it wasn't done to our understanding, we make sure we update it. I think that's what we're talking about.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
That's fine. This is the way I see what has happened here, from the chair's position. We have a motion on the floor, and I think there are two bullets on which I don't see dissent anywhere, and that is who was consulted, how were they consulted, was it done thoroughly enough. For that part of it, I see consensus.
The part that I see no consensus on is about issuing a draft piece of the food guide, which has been worked on for the last three years, to this committee rather than exposing it to all Canadians. I think that's where there's a problem. That's the way I see it. The motion includes that.
I think we're ready for a vote on the motion.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
I was going to say, Mr. Chair, that we should go to a vote, even though it doesn't look good for the good guys.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Okay. We'll strike that from the record.
Let's call a vote on this.
(Motion agreed to: yeas 7; nays 3) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Now we'll go to the second motion. Madame Gagnon, you can introduce it.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC
In addition to the new version, which is probably being printed right now, I would like to see the draft version of the new Canada Food Guide—the version that was used in the consultations. I would like someone to convince me that the people who put this together did so in good faith. Ms. Bush told us that she took many recommendations into consideration. I would like to know what changed.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Maybe I'll stop you there.
The preliminary version is the one that she had given to the consultants.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
I don't think that would be a problem. And there's the current version. That's what you're asking for: the current version and the one that was placed in front of the consultation a year from now.
The clerk is asking if you want to take out the second bullet, because the first bullet was in the first motion.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
You can do that if you get unanimous consent.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Yes, and then we could probably agree with this one.
5 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
We certainly could. The second bullet was already passed in the previous motion. If you eliminated that and just dealt with the first bullet, then we likely would get unanimous consent on that.
5:05 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Okay.
Very quickly, we're going to vote on the first bullet only, and the second bullet is eliminated from this.
(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
5:05 p.m.
Mr. Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, CPC)
Just for the committee's information, every time we sit around and try to discuss future business, it seems like we deteriorate and it becomes dysfunctional. I have therefore asked for a steering committee to be able to bring before committee a plan for future business. We'll have that meeting on Thursday morning, I believe, and then we'll hopefully be able to bring it to committee, in order to be able to address plans for future business.
Mr. Fletcher.