Health Committee on June 15th, 2010

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

That's wonderful. I'm just wondering if you would commit to expanding the audit back to the beginning of the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency.

[Dr. Elinor Wilson]

Madam Chair, through you, that would be a question best addressed to the chair of the board.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

I'll ask the chair of the board.

[Dr. John Hamm, Chairman of the Board, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada]

Thank you very much.

Bonjour, tout le monde.

This is my first opportunity to be present at a parliamentary committee meeting in Ottawa and I'm indeed pleased to be here.

In response to the honourable member, the board, as has already been stated, has asked for an audit of 2009–10 because there were certain discussions around the appropriateness of agency spending. The president of the agency has already indicated that it has been spending only approximately half of its allocation because currently it is unable to fulfill its entire mandate.

The current board is extremely confident that the agency is in fact a good custodian of public funds, but the public needs to be reassured, and that is why the agency board did ask for an audit of 2009–10: not because that current board has concerns, but it is extremely concerned that Canadians be reassured that their tax money is being appropriately spent.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Would the board be willing to ask for that audit to go back?

[Dr. John Hamm]

I will take that suggestion to the board.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you, Dr. Hamm. It is nice to see you here.

How much time do I have?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

You have very little.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have a very quick question. I understand there is a contract with McMaster University for research. I've been to a lot of research unveilings and funding announcements and I find it unusual that there is a contract with a university. Who is the lead researcher on this contract?

[Dr. Elinor Wilson]

The contract with McMaster University is not for research in the sense of what CIHR does in research. It was for a project to look at altruistic sperm donation in Canada, and it was a project that has been led by the PATH Research Institute, which is affiliated with McMaster University. The PATH institute has created a mathematical modelling tool—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

Excuse me, Dr. Wilson. The time is well over for this question.

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for being here to answer questions for us. It has been a very busy year. I wanted to take this opportunity to see if I could get an update on a bill that we did pass, a bill that was very important to me, and on which everyone around the committee did a great job. The health and safety of kids is really important to all of us, and to all Canadians, especially with regard to smoking.

Last year, we did the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act, formally Bill C-32, which received royal assent on October 8, 2009. I was wondering if we could take this opportunity for you to give the committee an update on the implementation of this act, which we all worked so hard to put forward. Could we get an update on that?

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you very much for the question.

You mentioned both bills. I'll speak particularly to the tobacco bill that you mentioned and that we had worked very hard on.

We believe this bill is a very important bill in our continued emphasis to try to reduce smoking rates in Canada, and particularly to reduce the number of young people who start to smoke; we know, of course, that this is a very critical time in terms of prevention, and preventing a lifetime of smoking is quite helpful.

As of April 6, 2010, the amendments to the Tobacco Act require little cigars and blunt wraps to be sold in packages of at least 20 units. That is designed to make these packages less affordable and accessible to children and youth. We had known that they were beginning to be packaged in smaller and smaller packages, which made them more accessible. They were not caught by the previous act, which focused on cigarette packaging. This actually took that same principle that has applied to cigarettes since 1994 and extended it to the little cigars and the blunt wraps. That came into effect as of April 6.

As of July 5 of this year, so just a few weeks hence, retailers will no longer be able to sell cigarettes, little cigars, or blunt wraps that contain additives or flavourings. I think the committee will recall from its deliberations that there were products that were beginning to be sold that had chocolate or bubble gum flavourings. These were clearly something that young people might have found more attractive. That will be prohibited as these sections of the act come into force on July 5.

Industry has had some time to adjust to the legislation and regulations. Those have been known. We've had some time within Health Canada, in terms of our inspectorate, for gearing up our monitoring and compliance activities to make sure that we're enforcing the April 6 changes that have come into effect and that we're geared up and ready to enforce the upcoming change in early July.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We've had some really great meetings this year. One we had recently was on nanotechnology. I think it provides a great opportunity for Canada, but there were questions brought up and there is some uncertainty with these new technologies. I think it's something that the committee has shown interest in studying a little bit more, hopefully in the fall.

I was wondering, what has Health Canada done to address the uncertainty raised by these nanomaterials in products in the Canadian market? I know that's a big part of the future, and where a lot of research dollars are, a lot of new products are going to be made available. Canadians want to know: what is this nanotechnology, and what are we doing to maintain the health and safety of Canadians over this time?

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you very much for the question.

Nanotechnology has been a subject of interest to scientists and to Canadians, I think, as we seek to understand the science better, to develop the science better, and to understand how that will impact on our regulatory programs, such as the ones we run in Health Canada.

In May 2007, the former Minister of Health commissioned the Council of Canadian Academies to conduct an assessment on the state of knowledge regarding nanomaterials, so again, it's that first step of pulling together the information. Then there was a report produced by the Council of Canadian Academies, entitled “Small is Different: A Science Perspective on the Regulatory Challenges of the Nanoscale”. Again, it was trying to pull that together.

I think that was a starting point for some of the activities we're doing now. That report suggested that we look to build capacities in research, standard-setting, international collaboration, and risk assessment. Those are things we're now pursuing both domestically and internationally.

Most recently, we've produced a working definition of nanomaterials. We're one of the first regulatory communities in the world to take that step so that we can define what we're dealing with. We now have a consistent set of approaches we can apply using that definition across the department.

We're also strengthening our regulatory framework. We're undertaking a more comprehensive legislative and regulatory analysis to understand in this new world—the emerging world of nanotechnologies—whether there are changes we need to be making. We're doing that review. We're looking also at the question of policy guidelines and whether those need to be adjusted as a result of this.

We also recognize this is not an issue that is unique to Canada. We're very much contributing to international efforts to build the evidence base. We're working with our regulatory partners elsewhere and looking to understand the nanoproperties, the exposure, and the potential adverse health events. We're also participating in some international work on developing standardized nomenclature. Often it seems like it's not a very interesting part of the issue, but being able to standardize definitions and terms is quite important for measuring and potentially regulating these kinds of substances.

I think there is a comprehensive plan in place, but it is an area that is still developing, so we will continue to work both domestically and internationally as the science develops.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

It's a really interesting sector. I hope we can work towards maintaining our leadership and maybe creating even more opportunities for Canadians for commercialization and opportunities in the future.

You mentioned in your opening statement that on the regulatory front, Health Canada is seeking—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

You have less than a half a minute, Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you.

You mentioned that Health Canada is seeking additional investments in support of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the chemicals management plan. I think you mentioned $22 million. I was wondering how that is going to work to help protect the health and safety of Canadians.

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you for the question.

This is part of our ongoing work to take the many thousands of chemicals and prioritize them for review in a retroactive way by looking at the chemicals that were already in place when we began this chemicals management plan. Working together with Environment Canada, we've prioritized 200 chemicals. This money will help us continue the assessment of those chemicals.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Joyce Murray]

Thank you, Ms. Yeates.

Dr. Duncan, we're on five-minute rounds.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses.

I'd like to pick up on some of Dr. Carrie's questions. I'm concerned about smoking by our youth. If we look at the “Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey” for youth, we can see that teenage smoking rates have been increasing. A major route of access to those products is contraband tobacco. I'm wondering what the department has done to enforce the Tobacco Act as it relates to the marketing, sale, and distribution of contraband tobacco to minors.

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you very much for the question.

We certainly do always look with interest at the monitoring numbers in terms of what we are seeing in terms of youth rates. We're concerned, certainly, to see some of the increases we saw in the most recent numbers.

Now, we do note that survey was taken before the most recent changes came into place, so we will obviously be monitoring and are hopeful that the most recent changes actually will deal with the question of youth smoking overall.

With regard to contraband specifically, we do have an inspectorate. We also work closely with Public Safety Canada, the RCMP, and others as they work to tackle the criminal activity behind contraband. We look at that with them. On May 28, I understand, there was an announcement as part of some of these other departments, led by Public Safety, I believe, on a new initiative with an investment of $20 million to combat contraband tobacco and to reduce the amount of tobacco consumed.

We have some portion of that funding. The bulk of it goes to the other partners in tackling the contraband issue, but we will continue to work through our inspectorate and others to try to deal with this issue.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

I guess I'm concerned. We have all agreed and we all passed Bill C-32. The problem has now shifted to the illegal market.

Contraband tobacco undermines many initiatives. Illegal products have no warning labels, no emissions information, and no product controls, and they are sold directly to children. I'd like to know what more specific actions the department will be taking.

[Glenda Yeates]

We share the concern about contraband and, clearly, the concern about children and smoking rates. The issue of this illegal activity, which is the criminal activity that leads to contraband, is not an area of our expertise. It's not an area where our enforcement arm is qualified. Our employees are not police officers; they are inspectors who go into retail establishments and enforce the Tobacco Act provisions.

So with regard to the contraband and the illegal activity, we share the concern, but the lead on that issue has been taken by the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Canada Revenue Agency. These are all agencies that take the lead on the law enforcement side.

We are certainly there with data, with information to support them, but they are the lead on the contraband issue.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

This is ultimately a health issue. You have mentioned that there was the commitment to a $20-million advertising campaign.

Can you explain to this committee how you expect to solve a $2.4-billion problem with a $20-million advertising campaign?