Six, commit to fully implement Canada's strategy for sodium reduction, which is now 18 months old. As the committee is aware, the sodium working group made 33 recommendations, including some recommendations for regulatory reforms. Ninety percent of Canadians will have hypertension during their lifetime, and a lot of this is attributable to excess sodium intake, which may cause as many as 16,000 premature deaths a year.
I expressed concern at this committee hearing last February about the sodium working group being disbanded. I will renew my concern by drawing the committee's attention to the fact that despite the provincial and territorial officials coming up with an alternative plan, which essentially stripped out most of the regulatory recommendations, the federal government still hasn't implemented that plan.