Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Minister, I appreciate you being here to answer questions today, with all of your officials.
I have just a quick question. I didn't see this mentioned specifically here in terms of funding, but there is an issue related to the natural health products directorate. I don't see how much money is applied to that directorate. I know they've been working diligently, trying to approve products prior to a deadline of June 30, when all natural products were supposed to be compliant with regulations, meaning they should have been through an approval process, but the last time we inquired, they had approved some 1,200 products of the roughly 50,000 to 60,000.
We've heard rumours that perhaps there is a plan to extend that compliance period by a year at least, to allow the department to catch up or make some significant progress in that list. Is that something you could advise us on?