I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me here today.
I apologize on behalf of our president, who was unable to attend. He's dealing with a legal matter in Calgary on Friday and was unable to be here. We got a late invitation, and I don't have a written submission because we were unable to get it translated.
The question that was asked is, sort of, why are we here? I'd reiterate very much what the CHFA had to say and much of what Mr. Tuck had to say, which is that about 10 years ago the largest public consultation in parliamentary history was held. A very thick report, called Natural Health Products: A New Vision was published, and synthesized from that report were the 53 recommendations.
The very first recommendation was that there shall be a new third category legislatively created by Parliament, not by regulation. If you go to the Health Canada website or the NHPD website, it will claim that this wasn't done because it was too complex procedurally to amend the act.
I note with interest the legislative history of a recently introduced bill, whose name shall go unmentioned; the process started in 1998. This was prepared by the Library of Parliament, presumably an objective source of information, which coincidently coincides with the publication of the New Vision report. Ten years, three prime ministers, and five ministers of health later, it comes out that the will of this committee, expressed as a policy expression by the Minister of Health's office in 1998, has been completely ignored.
Many of the members here weren't even elected to Parliament at that time, weren't privy to the consultations. I'm sure you could consult with your caucus members who were present for the consultations or have retired. It's pretty clear that what we're dealing with today was not the intent of this committee 10 years ago or the wish of the industry, the consumers, or the practitioners.
We have an opportunity, I believe, to go back to page one--not deal with the problems that have been created over the previous 10 years, but let's go back to page one and ask, where did we go wrong?
I'm deeply gratified to hear that the CHFA and the NHPPA are in complete agreement. I don't think we need to go any further than to look at the first recommendation of the committee from 10 years ago. Let's start fresh.
I thank you for the time.