Evidence of meeting #35 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was levels.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
In all fairness to the committee, they have worked very hard. There was an open, public consultation in February this year. We are disappointed that we had to delay it. There was an election in the interim. We had planned it for last September, so a year ago--
Liberal
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
That's the life of advisory committees. They are shut down during an election call.
We did have public hearings in February of this year.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
Members of Parliament didn't know that. How can you have public hearings without even the public representatives knowing?
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
There were more than several hundred, as well as an announcement on the website. Hundreds of replies came in from consumers and consumer organizations, as well as industry and the health NGOs. We don't have the resources to do that type of--
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
How many more resources would you need? Members of Parliament would be happy to put an announcement in our householders for free. Any time you want publicity, give us the camera-ready art and we'll put it in our householders.
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
That's a wonderful opportunity. The working group would love to take you up on that. They are busy working away on an education campaign, so that would be a useful vehicle.
I would also like to say that over the spring and through the summer there were--as Ms. Tanaka mentioned--three subcommittees of the group. They focused on three components, working hand-in-hand with the staff at Health Canada. We have now come up with draft targets for the food supply, and last spring we were understanding where the food supply was.
Those are the targets that are necessary to reduce the sodium levels in Canadian foods so that Canadians can get to those levels of the IOM. Those targets have been based on where Canadians are consuming their sodium. So that is a big step forward, as well as the education campaign. We're pleased to say that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have come on board to help us with the research necessary to support the work of the working group.
Conservative
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for being here this afternoon.
We have heard a lot of very important things regarding a collective effort to reduce Canadians' daily intake of salt. We know that studies have been done indicating that way too many people consume more salt than is acceptable. We heard that, of all chemical substances, salt is the leading cause of death and that there is a misconception among consumers about the amount of salt they consume. We also learned that salt has a major impact on the number of cases of disease and, as a result, on healthcare costs, as shown by a survey done by World Action on Salt and Health. The survey revealed that, in Canada, the salt content in a number of products was among the highest in the world, while the salt content in the United Kingdom was among the lowest. In addition, a very targeted campaign was organized to reduce salt consumption. Like Ms. Bennett, I would like to know what the group did. I also want to know when the findings will be made public and when action will be taken.
Ms. Tanaka, you said that the sodium working group studied the British model. What lessons have you learned from that model?
Ms. Reynolds, you also encouraged the committee to study this issue. What can the committee do to help your group and to ensure that consumer products contain less salt in the coming months? As some studies have shown, between 75% and 80% of the salt consumed daily comes from processed foods, not the salt shaker.
Executive Vice-President, Government Affairs, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
We are educating our members about the sodium issue. We've developed a booklet similar to those we developed on trans fat and nutrition labelling in our nutrition information program. These are available on our website to all restaurant operators right across the country.
But the key point we want to make is that this has to be a coordinated, industry-wide, nationwide approach. There is no point in one sector of the economy reducing sodium levels if the consuming public doesn't understand why. They have to understand that they have to adjust their palates, and that takes time. We're all working in our individual sectors, and the working group is trying to coordinate all of that work.
Vice-President, Federal, Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association
The working group looked at the U.K. and found that their government dedicated something on the order of $36 million to a public education and awareness campaign. This is going to be a critical piece of the success story around sodium reduction in Canada. We would implore this committee to lend support to this effort, and that is going to have to translate into dollars coming from the public purse.
My industry is working to educate our members, and our members will work at their level. But there has to be a concerted effort. The funding has to come from more than one sector. The Government of Canada needs to show leadership in this effort, needs to demonstrate its commitment to the process.
National Coordinator, Centre for Science in the Public Interest
I can't speak for the committee—I defer to Dr. L'Abbé for that—but this committee could emphasize to government the need for regulatory amendments to facilitate the transition. We've looked at models from Finland and the United Kingdom. They produced some benefits, but their sodium levels are still on a par with ours.
We'd like to see some more ambitious outcomes. It may well be that the calls for voluntary efforts will be insufficient. If that proves to be the case, I hope we'll find out immediately and move to etch some of those targets in regulations.
More resources for the committee or Health Canada to mount a public education campaign are important. We read the householders at our house. We're probably not alone in that, but we're at least lonely. We had envisioned a more sophisticated media strategy that involved television messaging.
President, Blood Pressure Canada
It's important to recognize some of the barriers that are faced. Overcoming them will require interactions between Health Canada, individual food companies, and groups of food companies. This is going to require the hiring of trained personnel. There are going to have to be negotiations about the targets and timelines, and this will require technical expertise in the relevant foods. That will mean hiring people and obtaining monetary resources.
The actual surveillance is complex and has to be representative of the Canadian population. There is a mechanism for that: the Canadian health measures survey. It's ongoing but it will need additional resources for the sodium monitoring—and that's on top of the education. This will probably come to $10 million to $20 million a year.
The cost savings from reduced need for antihypertensive agents will be around $300 million a year. So there is a monetary investment, but there is a direct, accelerated return on investment.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Thank you, Madam Chairperson. And my thanks to all of you for being here to discuss an issue critical to the health and well-being of this country.
I just spoke to Dr. Eldon Smith, who is involved in the heart health strategy. As I understand it, there are more deaths from heart disease and stroke than from all other chronic diseases put together. An important factor in this situation is high sodium. In fact, the news reports indicate that reduced sodium intake could reduce the number of people who have heart attacks and strokes by 11,500. That's a lot of people who would be affected by action on this front.
Your committee was set up almost two years ago, and it was to come up with a plan of action. Do you have a plan of action you can present to us today?
Conservative
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
I would say the sodium working group has the nexus of a plan. We have discussed and decided upon certain elements, and I can elaborate a couple of them for you.
For example, the sodium working group has decided the strategy should be phased so that we have set some targets that should be brought in, in a number of years, and in more aggressive timelines later. We recognize we need to get some immediate timelines and immediate targets so we can get the benefits that would be achieved with those. We have reviewed a very significant sodium education and awareness strategy, but obviously we would be looking to government to have the funds to support that, although I must say I was heartened by the support around the table of a number of the health NGOs and other sectors as well as industry indicating their willingness to participate in a large national campaign directed toward sodium awareness. So the components are there, but the specifics are not, and I think those would likely come in the form of our report later on this year or early next year.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
I guess I'd echo some of the concerns that Carolyn raised. If it hadn't been for Carly Weeks in the Globe and Mail , and some other work done by CBC, I don't think any of us would have necessarily been confronted with the significance of this problem. Maybe that's partly the work you're doing behind the scenes, but I think most of us really didn't know what you were doing. Now we hear it's going to be another year, so there is a concern about this. This is such an urgent issue. What is taking so long? I guess we're here to see if we can help move this along as quickly as possible.
My follow-up question is this. If the key to all of this is setting targets to reduce sodium intake—and we know that Canadians now have on average 3,500 milligrams of sodium a day and it should be more like, I think you're saying, between 1,200 and 2,300—have you agreed on a target?
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
I will say yes.
Earle W. McHenry Professor, Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
We've agreed our first target is to get the Canadian population down to the UL. We think that is the first achievable milestone that we can--
