Thank you very much.
To be clear, those 53 recommendations were decided at this committee in 1998. It was one of the largest studies I've ever heard of. It went on for eight months. It had 300 live presentations; 150 individuals, associations and coalitions; and 1,000 written submissions that the Chrétien government at the time fully adopted. That really brought in our current regulatory regime.
Really, what you're talking about is that the committee and the government thereafter for decades looked at risk-based...as well. Those are the words I kept hearing. What is the risk of a calcium supplement relative to a benzodiazepine, for example? Of course they should be regulated differently. What is the risk of a ginger tea versus something else quite serious? Of course those things are not the same and shouldn't be regulated the same way.
What are some of the costs to natural health products and Canadian companies with this increasing push to pharmaceuticalize, if I could use a made-up word, the natural health products regulations? What are some of the costs there, in brief, please?