Thank you for that question. We've come a long way since we started this review. Our government's aim is to protect the health and safety of Canadians while respecting that there is consumer choice. We have heard many stories from stakeholders, consumers, and parliamentarians that there is a need for increased access to products while maintaining consumer safety. They also want to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens for companies trying to bring safe products to the market.
As a result, we have introduced a new way of regulating natural health products that focuses on reducing, as you mentioned, red tape and increasing consumer access to safe and effective products. In fact, the officials who were doing the consultations and round tables in British Columbia yesterday received a standing ovation from stakeholders, so I think that is a testament to the great work being done.
The approaches that we are taking include a new product review system, where systems will review in as short as 10 days products that are at lower risk. It used to take up to 180 days to review most products, but now only 1% to 3% will require this amount of review time. We've also introduced new tools for bringing products to market. These changes will provide a stable, predictable, regulatory environment for the efficient processing of applications. I think there has been great progress since we started dealing with this issue.