Yes, with regard to those female entrepreneurs, 54,000 Canadians work directly in the industry, but there has been no gender-based analysis on this. Over 80% of the consumers of natural health products are women, 90% of practitioners in the industry are women, well over 50% of the micro-businesses are female-owned and 84% of direct sellers are women.
Here's the part that's particularly obnoxious about the way this has all happened: Bill C-47 and Bill C-69 give the Minister of Health the power to make direct orders. When the minister has the ability to make a direct order, they don't have to go through the gazetting process. When you don't go through the gazetting process, you actually don't have to do the gender-based analysis the government set up when it came into office in 2015, so no gender-based analysis was done on this particular issue of changing natural health products under the rubric of Vanessa's Law, and I think that's particularly galling, since this government claims to be a feminist government. It's going to disproportionately affect women—women-owned businesses, women consumers, mothers who want to look after the health of their families and their children. People who are looking after their own health should have choices and options available to them.
The community's frustrated, Mr. Ellis.