Health Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2006

[Stephen Samis]

The federal government has a tremendous role to play in terms of surveillance and our research data infrastructure. In fact, there is an undisputed role for the federal government. There is no province in the country that would argue with the federal government's collecting good solid surveillance data and making that data available so researchers could analyze the kinds of issues we're concerned about.

Presently we have tremendous holes and gaps in our surveillance infrastructure in Canada. For example, we don't know how many heart attacks we have in a year in this country. We have no idea.

[Tina Keeper, Liberal, Churchill, MB]

Right. Do you see that as a core function of public health?

[Stephen Samis]

I see it as a core function of public health and a core function of the Public Health Agency of Canada and the federal government, for sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay, thank you.

We don't have anyone else who has indicated that they have a question. We have a couple more minutes. If somebody has a burning question, I would accept that, but seeing none--

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Chair, I don't have a question, but I wonder if we could ask Jean Harvey to share some of her data with us.

I don't know if Mr. Samis has anything at all on the Norwegian projects they are doing in terms of advertising.

[Stephen Samis]

I don't have it with me, Mr. Chair, but I'll definitely try to bring some of that information forward.

If I may, I have an article that's just come out. It's by a professor here at the University of Ottawa. It gets at some of the questions the last member of the committee was raising. It's called “Family food insufficiency is related to overweight among preschoolers”. There is a little bit about food security, food insufficiency, and obesity, and I'd be happy to pass that along as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay. I knew I made a mistake when I opened it up for one last question. Now I've got two of them, so I'll ask each of them to have a very short question and a short answer, and then we will get them in on time.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

I think the chair outlined the situation quite well. Decisions are going to be made on the transfat issue, and it would be helpful to have clarity on the position of the seed growers and the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada. I'm not getting that sense of clarity today.

I would like to open it up again and provide each of you with an opportunity to present your views on canola, transfats, timelines, and the impact on production. We already agree that transfats are bad, but I want to know the best way to move towards having a healthy food supply for Canadians.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Go ahead.

[Stephen Samis]

We believe very strongly that canola is a solution to the transfat issue. Regulation would drive up demand for canola oil. The transfat task force was careful to ensure that we gave our canola growers enough time to develop crops sufficient to address transfat.

In the report, we also addressed the issue of palm oil and saturated fat, which we found was not a solution. We believe that we need to come up with a healthful solution to transfats, and that the solution is canola. By putting the regulation in place and driving up the supply, we will also position Canadian canola oil producers and growers in a lucrative export market. This would help other countries, including the U.S., to deal with the transfat issue.

We were very careful to take timelines into account. In the consultations, we heard the growers saying that we need a regulation to send a clear market signal, and that we need time to get the crop in the field and have it available in the food supply.

[Barbara Isman]

I have a question of clarification. Stephen, which growers are you talking about?

[Stephen Samis]

Which growers? I'd have to go back and see who presented. There was the Vegetable Oil Industry of Canada. There were also the major seed companies and some other growers.

[Barbara Isman]

The owners of the seeds have been very strong in advocating for a ban. There's no doubt about that. The task force did a great job on the actual recommendations, so you're not hearing me express outrage over the possibility of regulation. As they are currently designed, the regulations will not hurt us.

But you can't even measure the difference between transfat in animal fat and vegetable oil transfat. You have many foods that could be regulated or banned. In principle we would prefer that it not be regulated. That's the long and short of it. By “we” I mean the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, the Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association, the Manitoba Canola Growers Association, and the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Madame Gagnon.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

I would like to return to the Canada's Food Guide. You seem happy with the version that will be introduced by 2007 and which will be provided to all nutrition specialists as well as to others. Does it not worry you to see that 25 per cent of the food that contribute to obesity and overweight will not be included in the Canada's Food Guide? That also includes salt and anything that can be harmful to one's health and lead to heart disease. We have Bill C-283. You say that you are in favour of identifying the number of calories and the content in sodium and saturated fat. I know that the aim of your association is to fight heart diseases. You seem to want the companies to be even holier than the Pope himself, and in this case, the Pope would be the Canada's Food Guide. They are the ones who contributed to it. I find your position somewhat strange. To me, it seems contradictory.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you.

A very quick answer, please.

[Stephen Samis]

I was really speaking to the issues that were related to the consultation process. I was reacting to allegations from some people that the process has not been inclusive, hasn't been open and has been flawed and is riddled with conflict of interest.

Those really were the kinds of things I was getting at. We haven't seen the next iteration of the guide. We know that all of the member organizations of the alliance, including the Heart and Stoke Foundation, did provide advice and feedback back to Health Canada and we really want to see how those have been incorporated in the next version. We think that's really important. We think it's important that the next version come forward, that we not spend a lot of time doing months and months of consultation on the grounds that it wasn't a fair and open process.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the testimony and presentations made here, and I appreciate the questions from the committee as well.

The meeting is adjourned.