Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning everyone.
My name is Neil Collishaw and I am the research director at Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, an organization that has existed since 1985. I am not a physician. However, all of our members are physicians, from everywhere in Canada.
I have been working in the public health field since 1969, more specifically full-time in the anti-tobacco struggle since 1981. First I worked at Health Canada in the 1980s, then with the WHO in the 1990s, and I have been with Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada since then.
You have our written presentation. I will be happy to answer your questions in English or in French about that document and the comments I will make today.
As a former civil servant responsible for tobacco legislation and regulation in this country, I have lived the challenge of trying to control tobacco with no legislation and little political enthusiasm for creating the needed legislation. That was the situation in my job before 1987. Some days I thought it was a hopeless task. But I also saw how dramatically things could change when the Progressive Conservative government in 1987 directed us to create Canada's first tobacco control law, the Tobacco Products Control Act. The lesson learned by me was that public health protection requires strong direction from Parliament. Once again, now, strong political direction is required, this time on electronic cigarettes, and this committee is in an ideal position to make sure that this Parliament provides that strong policy direction.
These new electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS, present both a challenge and a threat. You have already heard from other witnesses, and I'm sure you'll hear from more today, from my colleagues and others, of the benefits that could come to smokers who switch to e-cigarettes. You have also heard, and you will hear, of the potential danger of these products, both to individuals and to public health. Harm could be reduced or possibly increased. Public health could benefit or possibly be made worse. You've heard of many other potential harms and benefits, too. All of this is happening in what I would describe as a virtual policy vacuum. Since 2009, these products have supposedly been banned in Canada.
The March 27, 2009, notice stated that:
To date, no electronic smoking product has been authorized for sale by Health Canada. [...]
Further on, the same notice states:
Persons importing, advertising or selling electronic cigarette products in Canada must stop doing so immediately.
That notice of 2009 has neither been rescinded nor enforced.
I know that you heard earlier from the public servants working in the therapeutic products directorate. I assure you they are all fine people, who must work, like I once did, without strong political direction. And they were taking a risk management approach, I think that's what they told you. Now let me translate that little bit of bureaucratese for you: it means, in the absence of any political direction or proof of immediate danger to health from these products their hands are tied.
You also heard from those responsible for administering the Tobacco Act. They told you that there's no tobacco in e-cigarettes, so these products are not covered by the Tobacco Act. Until they receive new direction from Parliament, their hands are also tied.
Our health protection system has demonstrated that it has been unable to deal with the challenges posed by e-cigarettes. The system is broken, and it is Parliament that needs to fix it.
We need a system that is science based. We need a system that will ensure the benefits are maximized and the risks are minimized. But they're ever-changing: we need a public health system with both the responsibility and the capacity to respond quickly to whatever devices might be out there and whatever new ones might be coming along. The system should also address the public health issues created by new and existing tobacco products and other nicotine products.
We also need to protect the system from the effect of the tobacco companies, something that has delayed action over the last half-century.
You've heard from two branches in Health Canada, but now we need the right hand and the left hand to work together. Dealing with electronic nicotine delivery should mean improving the way we are trying to control tobacco use. We need to integrate ENDS control and tobacco control. We need to have the best of both worlds: tools of regulation and enforcement that can be used both pre-market and post-market.
These better systems can be embedded in a modernized tobacco control strategy, one updated from the current strategy, which was designed more than 15 years ago. Provinces have been effective. There are some effective measures for tobacco and e-cigarette control in a bill currently before the Ontario legislature, but only the federal government is equipped with the reach and infrastructure to deliver the needed comprehensive system of tobacco and nicotine policy that will be responsive and effective.
I urge this committee to provide the leadership on nicotine and tobacco policy that has so far been lacking at the federal level.
There are many highly skilled people working within Health Canada. As a former WHO official who once worked with government tobacco control officers around the world, I can assure you that Canada is privileged to have one of the best trained and most experienced tobacco control teams anywhere. They are capable of returning to Parliament with draft legislation that will create effective ways to integrate sound public health management and control of all existing and new tobacco products and nicotine products. Please, ladies and gentlemen, please direct them to do so.
Thank you.