Thank you.
Just for clarification, I'm assuming the member is referring to the processing of natural health products permits? Yes.
Madam Chair, our government tabled amendments to the Food and Drugs Act to modernize and strengthen it last year. During the election, we promised to bring this legislation forward again, and we will be doing so in the near future. I say this just for clarification.
This legislation is also about ensuring that food is safe. It's also about strengthening our abilities to protect Canadians from harmful drugs and ensuring that natural health products are widely available, safe, and effective. So legislation will be coming forward for all members to debate when the time comes.
In terms of natural health products, this government is committed to eliminating the backlog of product applications by March 2010. We will be releasing online the progress report on the processing of those permits for natural health products. I believe it is supposed to be posted either today or tomorrow, but it will be posted this week sometime. It will indicate how many permits have been processed. From what I understand, there will be online applications to speed up the process. Last year, we were very backlogged, but on average we're now processing about 200 applications in response to that backlog.
I can give you the details on all of that, or you can wait for the report to be posted online. I think it's posted on the website today.