Thank you very much.
It's nice to see everybody around the table again today. Thanks for having us back twice this week.
Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members. It's a pleasure to be here.
As you know, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association is a $60 billion industry in Canada. My association represents about 33,000 restaurants. We were a very active and engaged member of the national trans fat task force and were fully supportive of the recommendations of the task force when they issued their report, including the prescribed limits set out for trans fat in the food supply of 2% and 5%, as Dr. Godefroy has already commented on.
The restaurant industry is not usually an industry that comes before government and makes requests for regulations or government interventions per se; however, trans fat has evolved, and in a unique way, and in this case, given what has evolved in the past number of years, I want it to be on record that the restaurant industry has in fact made requests of the Government of Canada to establish a national regulatory framework so as to ensure consistency with respect to reductions in trans fat across Canada. I'll speak to that in a little more detail in a few minutes.
As you heard from Dr. Godefroy previously, the government originally opted for a voluntary approach. The food service industry responded in earnest during that two-year voluntary period. We developed a how-to guide, which many of you may have seen over the years; it was advice and counsel to members of our industry on how to actually go about reducing trans fat in their menu items and product offerings. As Dr. Godefroy has already pointed out, Health Canada's trans fat monitoring program has clearly indicated that my sector has made significant efforts and reductions in trans fat in our menu items.
However, the challenges during the initial transition period were significant for food service. We had challenges in obtaining adequate supply. Some of our national chain operators that have very large volumes in oils in particular faced some initial challenges in getting supply online. Eventually, as there were market indicators that were compelling some transition in the supply side, we were able to get product and oils online, but I cannot overstate the significant challenges our members faced throughout those initial couple of years of transition. I want to be clear that it was not easy. Our member companies put a lot of resources, both human and fiscal, into their efforts to reduce trans fats.
In the absence of a national regulatory framework for trans fat reductions, what we've seen happen over the past number of years is local and regional authorities across this country undertaking their own regional regulatory approach to banning trans fat. I'll cite the example of the Calgary Regional Health Authority, which was one of the first to go down that road. We have seen a similar process unfold in British Columbia, and I have addressed a number of municipal bodies over the course of the past number of years that have looked at this as an option.
The food service industry is and has been uniquely challenged because of the nature of Canada's food regulatory regime; that is, the jurisdictional purview for enforcement and compliance around these kinds of issues is such that restaurants really have been singled out as policemen, if you will, to police the entire Canadian food supply with respect to trans fat. This has posed significant challenges for our members across the country. In response we have come back to the federal government. We have made our case, in this instance, to have a consistent national regulatory framework so that we can ensure that our members are operating in an environment in which they have a level playing field with their direct competitors along the food value chain.
I think I'll leave my comments at that, I will be open to questions later.
Thank you.