Health Committee on April 25th, 2018

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Chair, I think the legislative clerk would advise that because this one is consequential to the previous word change about the unhealthy foods, which was voted down. This is not to be considered.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

CPC-3 is withdrawn. We'll move to CPC-4.

Ms. Gladu.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

We had discussion about the fact that we don't want the advertising to adults to be impacted. By adding in clause 5, “communicated, without unreasonably limiting access by an audience other than children to that advertisement;” that makes it quite clear.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Dr. Eyolfson.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Again, it's well understandable that this is the intent of it. This has the potential of introducing a loophole. You could allow advertising to children under 13 by targeting other age groups with the same advertisement, so the language is really not clear on this. Given that the language could allow this loophole, I'll be opposing this amendment.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

It's a total surprise that they're not going to support this amendment.

However, I would say that we did have quite a bit of discussion about audiences where, for example, there would be a small percentage of children but mainly adults. We wanted to make sure that those events wouldn't be hampered and that they would still be able to advertise. Without clarity we're potentially leaving it to the regulators to interpret and I think it would be better to clarify it easily here.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I have one question for our officials. We had Mr. Lund here last Monday. He made a comment about how companies such as YouTube, Facebook, and the like won't be touching food advertising on those platforms going forward. Maybe I misinterpreted what he said, but I'm pretty sure that's clearly what he said.

Is that your interpretation of this as well? It would be virtually impossible, based on all the algorithms behind these platforms, to protect a kid under 13 with this bill so that they wouldn't be exposed if they were using their parents' iPad, computer, or whatever they were on.

[David Lee]

I will acknowledge that this is a complex area. For that reason, we are working with experts who can try to tell us what is possible in that space. Again, the intent of the policy is to make sure that there is not a promotional activity that is promoting unhealthy food to somebody under 13.

How that happens digitally is something that we are studying. It is a complex question, but again, the intent that we want to give is concentrating on those under 13, but not more. That would be the intent of how the regulation is expressed. Again, Quebec is having some early experience on this where they've seen some pretty child-directed electronic behaviour. They were able to manage the issue, so there's some promise that we can get a good handle on that, but it will take some work.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

What about convenience stores and grocery stores? Obviously, at a grocery store there are all sorts of things that kids can see from the time they can walk at one or one and a half, and then all the way up to age 13. We heard some of the names mentioned at the last meeting, etc. What can you tell us about your opinion of that for a grocery store or a convenience store? Are they going to have to cover everything up like they do with cigarettes at the convenience stores now? What are we looking at with this bill?

[David Lee]

My understanding is no, but I will turn to my colleague Hasan to explain.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Again, I'm not trying to exaggerate.

[David Lee]

No, of course.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I'm just trying to get your perspective on what we're looking at.

[David Lee]

It's a fair question.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson, Director General, Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Health Products and Food Branch, Department of Health]

Certainly at this particular time we are diving into how the.... That's really more on the packaging side of things, and at this time we are really trying to develop our policy around that. We are aware that it's a very interesting environment. That's really where we are right now.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

It's really just too early...?

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

Yes, and once again, as Mr. Lee mentioned earlier, this will be part of a regulatory process. There will be the public consultation that goes with that as we move forward.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

It's very interesting because, again, I don't condemn the effort that our senator here has put forward to try to promote a healthier lifestyle for kids, but I just look at this as a Pandora's box.

Basically everything will be left up to the department to determine through a regulatory regime. I've seen that in other bills coming forward through the years, and it's.... I understand that once the bill's passed, there will be review, gazetting, and so on, but it is leaving quite a lot up to you to determine and flesh out. I'm not quite sure. To be quite honest, I don't know how anybody sitting around this table can vote for it because you're really....

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Let's find out.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I have a point of order.

I think the bells of the House of Commons are ringing. I don't know what is customary in this committee, being one who is just sitting in for our member who is away, but for our committee, it's customary to recess the committee business for that time or seek unanimous consent to continue. I would just like clarification about that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

We'd need unanimous consent to continue, but we could finish this in five minutes and then the witnesses wouldn't have to come back on Monday.

Is it the will of the committee to try to finish this in five minutes, or not? I need unanimous consent. Do I have unanimous consent?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

All right. There are no more questions on CPC-4, so we're going to have a vote on CPC-4.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I didn't consent, Mr. Chair, so there is no consent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

You don't consent...?

Thank you.