Evidence of meeting #2 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
I think it's important to identify that. I think it's important to identify the success--
Liberal
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
--of the mitigation measures that have been taken. I want to go back and just identify, say in New Brunswick--
Conservative
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
--that they have managed throughout the situation, through the work, adjusting schedules--
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
What I'm saying here is that provinces continue to implement the contingency measures.
In terms of the resources that the member is asking me to table--
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
--once I have that information, I will be able to work with provinces and territories, but overall, managing the contingency has been working very well across the country.
If the member is interested, I can go by jurisdictions--
Liberal
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning and welcome, Minister.
The government had given itself until the month of December 2009 to complete the licensing process for natural health products. You also appeared before this committee on February 10, 2009, and you were asked whether the government could meet that deadline. You responded "In terms of natural health products, this government is committed to eliminating the backlog of product applications by March 2010." You were even more specific in an answer to your colleague from Barrie when you said "Our government is committed to eliminating the backlog by March 2010." The month of March 2010 ends in 15 days.
In the supplementary estimates (B) from last fiscal year, you established a fund of slightly over $9 million to reduce the backlog. In the supplementary estimate (C) or the same overall budget for the year 2010-2011, there is no additional funding for this.
Does this mean, minister, that you can commend yourself for having reduced and eliminated the backlog while meeting the deadline you had set and referred to before this committee?
Conservative
Leona Aglukkaq Conservative Nunavut, NU
Thank you for that question.
I'm going to start it off and pass it on to the official, Michelle Boudreau, to give you an outline as to the status.
By March 31, 2010, Health Canada will have addressed the backlog and is on target to complete all the applications in the backlog by December 31, 2010.
Could I have you elaborate just a bit on that?
Michelle Boudreau Director General, Natural Health Products Directorate, Department of Health
Good morning.
We are always very conscious of timelines. To date, we have settled 99% of cases, in other words we only have 1% left to process. Within this backlog, there are only 193 product applications left to be completed. So, we are very confident that we will reach the stated objective by the end of March and within the timelines we had set. We expect to have completed everything that is outstanding, in other words 3,000 licensing requests by the end of December 2010.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
You are saying that there are 3,000 products yet to be approved by the end of the year. What happens to products that do not have a natural product number? As you know, retailers are already refusing or will refuse to sell products that do not have this natural product number.
How has your department made sure that the natural health care products industry in Quebec and in Canada will be respected under the new timelines you have set for the end of 2010?
Director General, Natural Health Products Directorate, Department of Health
We have established a number of initiatives that have helped us respond more swiftly to approval requests. Today, we have 150 monographs as well as 15 or so labelling standards. We have also set up a data base that is accessible to those who want to have their products licensed. We are using mainly internal resources. In fact, 55% of our staff are currently working on product licensing requests on a daily basis.
With respect to the recent situation for retailers, mainly in Quebec, we have tried to help people by asking them to tell us what their priorities are. The specific submissions they make for approval allow us to move ahead more quickly. The electronic approval submission process will shortly be accessible, which should also help us speed up the approval process.
Every day we continue to use procedures that allow us to more quickly complete the assessment process and we render our decisions. We receive approximately 45 applications per day. Yet, today, the number of decisions we make is higher than the number of applications we receive. We are moving swiftly. We also work specifically with retailers, some of whom are members of our external committees. Every day, we try to help these people so that they may move forward with the marketing of their products.
Bloc
Luc Malo Bloc Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC
I do not want to misinterpret your words. Are you saying that the retailers that you are working with through this process you have established are reassured and will be able to sell the products you are in the process of approving?
Director General, Natural Health Products Directorate, Department of Health
Certainly, for the projects that have been approved. As you may know, we have approved over 25,000 products to date. To put this figure into perspective, 25,000 products is a rather considerable number, given the fact that most retailers only carry about 6,000 products. We have approved 25,000 products that can be legally sold in Canada and are certainly accessible to retailers.
