I can start, and others will chime in.
In terms of the federal government's role, I think it has several. One is obviously a coordinating and convening role, in the sense that it has a lot of potential to be the leader in bringing parties together. The Public Health Agency and Health Canada do a lot of that, but I think it could be even further developed.
We had hoped that in a new health accord—and I'm not even sure you need to call it a health accord any longer—there would be some goals and some measurable targets everyone would agree to, things that the provinces and territories would agree to try to accomplish over the lifetime of the next accord. I think that is still possible, from what I've heard from various sectors, so if we could bring people together to establish those, we would all know that we're moving in the same direction.
Obviously the provinces, being responsible for health care, play a very big role in this too, but we feel there does need to be national oversight and some national standards that people can agree to. On aboriginal issues, we totally agree with our friends from western Ontario that aboriginal health is a huge issue that needs to be addressed.
In terms of sodium, I don't know if you're aware, but the B.C. government recently had one advertising tranche, and is having another, concerning sodium reduction. We've asked to see the evaluation of those initiatives. We’re a little skeptical in that you may be preaching more to the converted, and that's a bit of our concern about the mass advertising approach. I know Health Canada is looking at that. The day before yesterday I was at a session with them concerning some of their plans to continue their work on sodium reduction, working with the provinces, and we felt encouraged by that news. Obviously sodium is a big issue and a major contributor to heart disease and is the one that needs to continue.
To get the food producers to reduce salt, reduce trans fats, and reduce sugars in their foods is really tough. This is the big problem. There are some leading food companies that are committed, but they run into the problem that consumers, in many cases, don't like the stuff and won't buy it, so it's hard for the food companies to justify to their bottom line that they do that.
However, there is some movement. We would certainly like to see more. Again, I think the federal government could provide some leadership by supporting and helping those who want to make progress and want to do things differently. It could highlight those companies, and hopefully the laggards would come behind. When all else fails, regulate. It's not the first choice, but sometimes you have to do that.