Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The research out there says that, in hospital situations, 7.5% of the patient population that gets admitted to hospitals is due to adverse events for regulated prescription medications. That's huge—7.5%—when you compare that to 700 for natural health products. Ultimately, “The Canadian Adverse Events Study”—this is from back in 2004—showed that, of that 185,000 of the 2.5 million hospital admissions, 70,000 of those could potentially have been prevented. This is with regard to prescription medications. To turn around and say 700 from natural health food products.... Look at the difference. There's a huge difference between those numbers.
I think this is a very educational part. We need to be very aware of these facts. We need to turn around and say that, yes, there are adverse effects. Yes, the industry needs to make certain that they're doing what they're doing, and it needs to be stepping up to make certain that that's done. I believe that the industry is doing that and making the steps, and it's prepared to make changes. However, when all of a sudden this government turns around and starts putting in right-to-sell, per-item costs for that industry, it's a huge cost, and that's an annual cost for every product they have. Then you turn around and take a look at the class of the level of the product that they're trying to sell.
I remember when I was a regulator dealing in the industry and in my profession. People brought across the table a new ultrasound machine. It had to go in front of Health Canada, and in front of Health Canada, it had to go through the process of making sure that it was appropriate. That cost was huge. Now, granted, we're talking about a product that's providing ultrasound treatment to somebody. Yes, there are a lot of issues that can result in various side effects there, so that product needed to be regulated appropriately. However, the costs were huge. When we're talking about a health food product—like a vitamin—and we classify that and have these huge, thousands-of-dollars costs.... Then, on top of that, you have the site licensing fees, which are supposed to be based on a cost recovery, yet no one has done an assessment on exactly what that cost is. These are huge amounts. I think the steps and the processes are not in place to follow those aspects and to make certain that we are doing what we should be doing.
My colleague has put forward a motion that we're dealing with that I think we need to look at, and look at immediately, to turn around and say to the government that this is wrong. The regulatory process has been put forward. Many people in the industry have put forward their information. It's time to turn to the government and say that this is not acceptable. Either it goes back to relooking at this, or we end it as we speak.
With that said, Mr. Chair, I want to thank you for the ability to speak on this.
I ask my colleagues to support this motion.