Health Committee on Feb. 15th, 2024

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Speaking of labels, in my former role, I was involved in the Yukon Territory, in collaboration with Public Health Ontario and the University of Victoria, in a study that, despite some push-back from industry, did show some promising results.

Can you comment on what the evidence tells us about the effect of alcohol warning labels and the information that consumers may want or need to modify their drinking habits?

[Ciana Van Dusen]

That study was tremendous in bringing us forward. It did demonstrate a reduction by, I believe, almost 7% in alcohol consumption. It meant that people were far more aware of the potential harms and risks. It also meant that, with increased awareness of alcohol costs and harms, people were more likely to support other legislation that would also aim to raise awareness or reduce consumption. It's a great first step in bringing us to a point where we are able to have more serious conversations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Dr. Hanley and Ms. Van Dusen.

First of all, I want to thank all of our witnesses for being with us.

That concludes the rounds of questions. The MPs in the room should not go anywhere. We still have some committee business that we need to deal with.

To all of our witnesses, we very much appreciate your being here. We very much appreciate the degree of specificity that you put into the recommendations you provided. It will be of great assistance to us in the development of our report to the House. We very much appreciate your being here. Thank you so much.

Colleagues, we're going to suspend to allow us to switch the technology over to go in camera and for the witnesses to take their leave.

We are suspended.

[Proceedings continue in camera]