Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago during question period I had the opportunity to address a question to the Minister of Health. It concerned a newspaper report that evidence had been conclusively found that the tobacco industry was explicitly targeting our youth in terms of marketing and sales of tobacco products.
When I became a member of parliament I asked to be put on the health committee because of my interests from my prior work. One of the first issues we dealt with on the health committee was tobacco related products and some of the health concerns Canadians have.
We went through extensive hearings. Experts from all across North America came before us. Evidence was presented of some of the things being done. For instance in the United States young people were being invited to rock concerts but the admission was two empty packages of cigarettes. There was also evidence that there was advertising in children's comic books for cigarettes and anecdotal evidence that scantily clad women went to schools to hand out cigarettes to students, somehow to glamorize or to draw attention to tobacco.
There has been no question for a very long time that the tobacco industry has recognized that if a person does not start smoking by age 19, it is very unlikely that person will ever be a smoker in adulthood. Knowing that fact, it has been very clear to health care advocates that children, our youth, are the ones being targeted by the tobacco industry to try and sustain tobacco sales. It was no surprise to find out that there is hard evidence that this is the marketing strategy for the tobacco industry.
On Friday, June 9 there was a Senate hearing on a Senate bill dealing with increasing the price of tobacco with the additional resources to be made available for use cessation programs et cetera. It was interesting to find that the tobacco industry mysteriously has come on side after all that has gone on, and Canadians will know how much has gone on with regard to the tobacco industry.
Now we have a situation where everyone knows that is exactly what has been happening. There is no debate. There is no question.
I raised the issue with the minister and I raise it again tonight. I think it is important that Canadians know that there is going to be a concerted effort to communicate with Canadian youth. This issue is not a surprise to us. Obviously Health Canada has been working on this for some time.
I wanted to raise the question again tonight with the parliamentary secretary. Could he help us to understand better how committed Health Canada is to addressing the issue of youth smoking? Maybe he could share with us a couple of the ideas or strategies we have to ensure that we will not have a false start on a very important health initiative.