Health Committee on Feb. 1st, 2011

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

It's the natural health products directorate.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Of course, I should have known that.

I'll pass it over to Ms. Hughes. Thanks.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Thank you.

I want to touch base on the information that Mr. Hutchinson actually presented. He talked about increasing the availability and accessibility of nutritional foods.

We know that there's a barrier to eating healthily in the cost of food, particularly in northern communities, which are often first nations and aboriginal and have high rates of obesity. I'm just wondering what specific policies are in place to ensure that nutritious food is affordable for these northern communities.

The other thing is, where is the best way for these communities or organizations in these communities or individuals...? Is there a specific website as to where they could actually go? I don't know about you, but I know when I go to a website, often everything is scattered. Even government websites, where you're trying to get some information on a specific program or programs that could be out there that would link accessibility for funding or for resources, are scattered. I'm just wondering if you could assist us with that. The first nations communities, of course, are the big issue right now.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

First, with respect to the first nations and Inuit health branch, that's a different part of Health Canada. It's not my responsibility, or Sammy's responsibility, so we will have to take that question back for a bit more detail. As Sammy mentioned earlier, we will come back with those sorts of things.

That said, certainly the first nations and Inuit health branch is part of Nutrition North Canada, and that program will be starting May 1, I believe. It's sort of the reformulation of the food mail program, with Indian and Northern Affairs as well. That is certainly a main component that will be going forward in the north.

The other side, of course, is what Kim Elmslie was talking about earlier. As part of the curbing childhood obesity program, we do have a task group on food availability and access. There is a particular focus there on northern and remote regions as well. It's a group that I'm chairing. We're actually looking at programs that are in place in the different provinces and territories, and run by the feds as well, to look at where there are possibilities for collaboration and sharing of best practices as well.

Again, we're early days in that. We just had our second meeting this week, actually, but we will be having recommendations for movement on accessibility in the north.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

I just want to touch base on something that Kirsty mentioned with regard to the breakfast programs. I think it's extremely important to recognize how imperative it is for us to have those in place.

I know you talked about Aboriginal Headstart, but I was in Nunavut last year, and it was very concerning to me what the contacts I made there said to me when I asked what I could bring next time. They said, “Even if you could bring us some dry cereal for the kids to actually have a head start, that would be good.” So it's crucial that we actually get the breakfast programs going.

My other question is about social assistance rates. They're often insufficient for individuals and families to pay for their daily living expenses, including the purchase of healthy foods, of course. I'm wondering if there's collaboration between PHAC, or the federal government, with provinces and territories to ensure that social assistance is sufficient to support a healthy diet. And I'm just wondering if you're planning to raise that issue at your meeting.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

One aspect, of course, with respect to the cost of food is that we do have a nutritious food basket that we have developed. It's basically a costing tool that's available for different jurisdictions, be it the provinces, territories, or Toronto Public Health, for instance, who use it to keep track of the cost of what we have constituted as a nutritious food basket. One can see what's happening with trends that way.

Certainly, though, I would imagine that those sorts of questions will come up in the context of the FPT task group on access and availability in terms of nutritious foods.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

So--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

That's it, Ms. Hughes, I'm sorry.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

It goes by so fast.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I know. Time passes when we're having fun, doesn't it.

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for being here. I've been finding the comments quite interesting.

First, to Dr. Hutchinson, we know here in committee about the sodium working group, and about the work you've done. The sodium working group has been around for some time. You published your sodium reduction strategy in July of 2010. We were very pleased to see that.

I was wondering if you could tell us about the goal of the strategy and what more this government is doing to reduce sodium in the diets of Canadians.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

It's kind of interesting, actually, because that's a responsibility that's shared between ourselves and the food directorate, and of course we have the Public Health Agency.

I will start, I guess, in the role that I have as chair of the sodium working group. As I'm sure most of the members here are aware, we had quite a detailed process where we worked out a multi-stakeholder, multi-stage strategy, which was looking at three prongs: one looking at the food supply, one looking at awareness education, and one looking at research. The strategy really came out with a large number of different recommendations specific to those three prongs, as well as some recommendations with respect to monitoring evaluation.

Since July there has been a fair amount of work done on all of those areas. I'm sort of trying to figure out where to start here. If we want to have a quick start with respect to perhaps the food supply....

Did you want to say a few words on that?

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

Sure.

The strategy, as it was published, recommended the reduction of sodium intake for Canadians and has set a milestone for that reduction. It is an ambitious milestone to get Canadians' intake of sodium to less than 2,300 milligrams per day by 2016. The strategy essentially made recommendations on a number of initiatives to get us there.

One of the recommendations that is under federal oversight is to support our food supply in moving toward sodium reduction--essentially enabling the availability of products with lower sodium levels. Health Canada has invested a lot of effort in doing that by developing very aggressive targets for the reduction of sodium that will have to be achieved for the food supply.

While we are taking on that objective, we have to be very cognizant of the role of sodium in processed foods. We have to make sure we do not compromise food safety in the context of sodium reduction. But we still must make sure we achieve that objective.

One of the milestones I'm happy to report to the committee is that Health Canada published the proposed sodium reduction targets on January 7 for another period of consultation with industry, with the hope that these final targets will be considered as the 2011 targets in March 2011. So there is quite a bit of work under way in that regard.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

The nutrition facts education campaign I talked about earlier specifically addresses recommendation 2.6 of the sodium working group. It is about ensuring that Canadians are able to understand the nutrition facts table so they can make better choices about the sodium in those foods.

The Public Health Agency and ourselves are putting together a fairly comprehensive plan on awareness and education to attack those recommendations.

On the research side, CIHR, working with NSERC, has already made some initial steps with respect to making moneys available to have progress with respect to the research so they can really work on the gaps of knowledge we need, in terms of understanding how we as individuals process the taste so we can more quickly reformulate the foods.

On the monitoring and evaluation side, we have been hosting, with the World Health Organization, work to put together a framework for monitoring and evaluation. We had a WHO meeting in October that was hosted by Canada. There is work ongoing there at that level on monitoring and evaluation.

As well as the federal work that's going on, we have an FPT task group on sodium that is being led by both Health Canada and B.C. out of the Public Health Network. So we have a more coordinated approach across all the different levels of government in Canada to have work plans that take in not just the feds but the responsibilities of the provinces and territories on how we're going to work cooperatively to get toward the goal of 2,300 milligrams per day, on average, by 2016.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

That sounds excellent. It is quite the goal, and it seems that things are being coordinated quite well.

My NDP colleague talked about allergen labelling. I know the regulations are ongoing and are being formulated. As we speak, they're unfolding, but can you explain how changing those regulations will improve the health and safety of Canadians?

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

Thank you for the question.

These regulations are clearly intended to make sure that Canadians with food allergies or gluten intolerances can limit the risk of inadvertently consuming a food product--particularly a pre-packaged food--with the culprit ingredient to which they are allergic or intolerant not being declared.

We currently have mandatory requirements for ingredient labelling, but there are some areas where these requirements may lead to omitting the declaration of an allergen or a gluten source. So those regulations are clearly meant to stop those instances from happening.

For example, when you have a spice mixture there is no requirement right now to have the composition of the spices declared. While we're not changing that, the requirement will make sure that if there is an allergenic substance in that mixture, only that substance will have to be declared. It cannot be omitted.

There is another objective being pursued. Food-allergic consumers, their caregivers, and their families do not shop with a dictionary. So we're trying to make sure the information is easily accessible to consumers and there are simple words that have to be recognized in considering whether or not to buy or consume that product. So terminology like “beta-lactoglobulin” for milk will have to be accompanied in a mandatory fashion with the word “milk”.

So those are some of the elements being pursued through these allergen labelling regulations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Dr. Godefroy. I appreciate your enthusiasm. My goodness, you could talk all day on this, and you're so insightful. We appreciate it very much.

Now we'll go to the five-minute rounds. We'll begin with Dr. Dhalla.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Thank you very much to all of you.

I know that Mr. Godefroy loves to talk about this, but just very quickly, because we only have five minutes, I have a constituent who actually wrote regarding food labelling regulations. She wrote that her husband is celiac, and that it's very difficult to shop for gluten-free products. She said to please ensure that the regulations that have been put forward for two and a half years are quickly enacted.

Why has there been a delay in the implementation and passing of these regulations?

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

Thank you for the question.

I wouldn't actually qualify it as a delay. These regulations are very complex regulations. I don't know if any of you have had a chance to look at division I of part B of the food and drug regulations. It is one of the most complex, I would say, and probably one of the oldest, pieces of regulation we have. Our regulations date back to the 1960s.

Needless to say, those amendments have a number of implications that needed to be addressed. As I mentioned, we went through a very thorough consultation process, and we have accounted for the comments we have received. We had to. In fact, that clearly added to the timelines between publication in the Canada Gazette part I to publication in Canada Gazette part II.

The commitment, however, is actually there. It has been reiterated in a number of instances by Health Canada, by our minister. And as I mentioned, it is a Government of Canada commitment as part of the food and consumer safety action plan. These regulations will be finalized and will be published in their final form.

I would like to mention that for celiac disease, specifically, and gluten sources, the Canadian allergen labelling regulations are actually unique. We are, in fact, the first jurisdiction in the world to mandate the declaration of sources of gluten for pre-packaged foods in order to enable celiac individuals and wheat-allergic consumers to not only protect themselves but to increase their choices. This is another element we are pursuing through these regulations.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Is there anything we can do, as parliamentarians and in this particular committee that is studying the issue of healthy living, to help move these forward?

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

I would say that your interest, by itself, will be an additional support for us, as a department, in completing this endeavour. There is the commitment there to complete these regulations.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I think there have been a number of questions from the MPs themselves. It's something that needs to get done. It's great to have it on paper, but it needs to get done immediately. The closing line of my constituent's e-mail was “Please help us”. So on their behalf, I think it needs to get done immediately.

I have another question. In 2007 there was the appointment of an individual who was the adviser on healthy children and youth. There was a report done. In particular, one of the recommendations in the report was due to the alarming statistic that Canada was 27th out of 29 OECD countries in regard to the rising rate of obesity. There was a recommendation in regard to establishing a centre of excellence on childhood obesity.

I go into schools in my particular constituency on a weekly basis, and I see some of the foods these kids are eating and bringing in for breakfast or lunch. It is quite disheartening, because they're filling up on chocolate bars and stuff that is not very nutritious. The rate of obesity is definitely rising.

Has that particular recommendation with regard to the establishment of a centre been implemented? Are there any discussions around that? Second, has any money been put into helping to reduce the childhood obesity rates that are growing in Canada?

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

My colleagues from the Public Health Agency of Canada, with the permission of the chair, will answer.