Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll go back to the last question that Mr. Davies.... Again I think it frames what we're talking about here with this motion and the reasons why we have concerns with it. The transcript reads:
Mr. Davies:: I think it would help Dr. Sharma and all of us with this. In that case, did the product that was given make a claim that it would treat the particular ailment the child had?
Dr. Supriya Sharma: We don't have the details....
She says, “We don't have the details”, yet it's one of the cases that she cited as to why it is so important that this industry face costly regulations—costly regulations that could potentially see the demise of 60% to 70% of these small businesses, if what we're also hearing from those officials is that the majority of the businesses in this industry are small to medium-sized businesses.
The Canadian Health Food Association is the largest Canadian organization dedicated to natural health and organic products. Their members consist of over 1,000 businesses across Canada, including manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors and importers of natural health products. Indeed, natural health products are an important source of organic and wellness products used by over 71% of Canadians.
The industry is a $5.5-billion industry. It generates $2.8 billion in taxable revenue and supports over 54,000 Canadian jobs. As I said, many of them are small to medium-sized businesses. After accounting for the full supply chain and increased economic spending, its total footprint is estimated to be $11 billion of GDP. Within the sector, 86% of the businesses have 50 employees or less. The reason I say that is that these small businesses are the backbone of this industry, and these regulations are at risk of closing the doors of these small businesses.
Ninety-four per cent of those businesses within the sector have 200 employees or less, and 97% have 500 employees or less. These discriminatory regulatory changes under the outdated and broken self-care framework will crush the small and medium-sized businesses. They'll have a profound impact: 83% of these businesses say they will struggle to absorb the costs that these regulations will bring in, and 76% of the industry responded to indicate a high likelihood of product removal from Canada. This means Canadians won't have access to these products. Sixty-six per cent say employment will suffer, resulting in devastating job losses. One in five businesses will be at risk of closing.
Our colleague, in his intervention, mentioned his concerns. My primary concern on this is not just the testimony of Dr. Sharma, which I find suspect—I'm sorry, but I gave her multiple opportunities to withdraw those comments. As I said in my testimony, I believe her to be a good person, but it is misleading when you stand here before a parliamentary committee and you provide testimony as such and you don't have all the facts. Because she is a doctor, we just take that testimony at face level, but I think that behooves all of us to do the research on that, which is why I questioned her that day.
Overwhelmingly, it is this Canadian industry that we are at risk of decimating due to these unnecessary regulatory changes. I'm not discounting the testimony that we heard today and the written submissions as well. I think again, as Dr. Ellis had mentioned, on the 700 deaths that are being attributed to mislabelling, when we ask for data on that, we're not able to access that. At least, I haven't seen the data on that.
I'm sorry. It's not deaths. It's 700 adverse effects. That was my mistake. Those are events and cases that.... Again, that's why I made that mistake. It's because it was my understanding that it was deaths. If we had the data, then perhaps we could accurately state our facts. Again, it's what we need.
Going back to Dr. Sharma's testimony, I take no joy in doing this, but Canadians deserve for us to do our jobs when we come here. I've said it before and I'll say it probably multiple times during the course of our committee work. Committees are supposed to be masters of their own destiny. We're here to do the job. We have medical experts on this committee. Sadly, we are relegated to...not talking out the clock, but having to take control because, as we've seen in the past, when we ask questions or we push for discussion outside of the government agenda, debate gets adjourned or we get railroaded. That's sad.
With that, Mr. Chair, I will cede the floor to the next speaker.
I support my colleague's motion. Thank you.