Madam Speaker, on November 30 I raised a concern about the apparent change in name of the health protection branch to the management of risks to health branch. It is impossible to find in any official document from the Department of Health any reference any longer to the Health Protection Branch. The HPB is out; MRH is in.
The question for all of us is does this mean anything. It would seem to me that it does mean something, using the old adage that if you change the name you change the game. I believe that is what is actually happening with the government. The health protection branch was supposed to be responsible for guarding public health: the safety of the food we eat, the medicines we take and the toys our children play with. These all depend on the investigative strength of this important arm of government.
Something has gone terribly wrong. The federal government has been closing labs. We have the RCMP investigating in terms of blood and breast implants. We have had scientists appear before the Senate committee expressing concerns about the approval process for bovine growth hormone. More recently, we have had evidence of blood coming from prisons in the United States into this country without proper regulation.
We have had the minister refuse to take action on scientific studies showing toxins in bags that contain blood products. We have had as recently as today officials of the department promoting a risk management approach when it comes to organs and tissues. I think we have a critical situation. The whole way of doing business has changed under this government.
The most important question for all of us, the question that sets the tone for the entire safety process, has to do with the burden of proof. Canada's health safety system has always required the makers of new or questionable products to prove that their products are safe before they are released to the public. The public has always been confident in the knowledge that long before they ate their roast, swallowed their pill or sprayed their lawn, the makers of those roasts, pills and sprays had to prove to someone that the product was safe. Someone was looking out for their well-being.
Now under this government it is all changing. The burden of proof will be on government regulators at HPB to prove that the products are harmful. Our system has been successful because it was based solely and solidly on the precautionary principle. The government seems to be now sacrificing that for a corporate friendly system of risk management.
This in our view is intolerable. We will fight it at every opportunity. Any risk is too high.