Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for Burnaby--Douglas for his contribution to this debate, and the member from the Bloc for some valuable contribution, as well as my colleague from Oshawa who introduced the bill.
I have to take exception to some of the remarks made by the parliamentary secretary in his debate a few moments ago. He has mentioned that there are some 50,000, some would say 60,000, natural health products, that are used in Canada today, and that if we do not examine them all before we make them available, we will fail to protect Canadians.
In one issue that the Fraser Institute raised in its analysis, it called Canada's proposed regulatory framework for natural health products “a cure worse than the illness” in light of international evidence. The very fact is we have rules about when regulations should be necessary for government. There has to be a demonstrated need for these rules. There has to be some sort of cost benefit analysis. When the adverse effects of the natural health products, from which the minister would protect Canadians, are lower than Aspirin or Tylenol, I have to question why we need such a monstrous regulatory regime that would characterize natural health products as drugs when they are natural components.
He has mentioned that a committee is looking at what should be done with schedule A. I wonder if Canadians realize that when we are talking about this schedule of some 40 diseases, it goes back to, as far as we can determine, 1934. We have clauses 3(1) and 3(2) in the Food and Drugs Act that say, “they shall not label or advertise that a vitamin, mineral or herb or a natural product will influence anything on the schedule of diseases”, schedule A. Schedule A concerns some diseases like cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. How is it that in 1934 Canada was so advanced in our science and research that we already knew that none of these products could possibly influence anything on this schedule? Why are we looking at this in a new century, in 2004, whether we should change some of these antiquated clauses that came into effect way back in the 1930s?
The explosion of scientific information on the benefits of natural health products is astronomical. For example, heart disease is on the list. The hon. colleague from Oshawa mentioned folic acid. There are a thousand articles in the last five years alone, in scientific literature, on the benefits of folic acid, in particular with cardiovascular disease. That is our number one killer. We are concerned about the cost of health care, but Canadians are dying because of heart disease and stroke, and there is compelling scientific evidence that one of the best things they can do to lower the risk is take a simple folic acid supplement. I hope members in the House are listening today because we should all be taking folic acid. I took it this morning and I take it every day.
We now understand the biochemistry. It has more to do with heart disease than cholesterol for example. We are spending hundreds of millions on trying to diagnose cholesterol levels when we know now that there are people who genetically have very high levels of cholesterol all their lives and never develop serious heart disease. Then there are others who have very low levels of cholesterol, but who develop very serious heart disease. Therefore, there has to be another factor. Researchers at UBC were saying, at least six years ago, that we should test for homocysteine. We now understand this simple amino acid, which damages the lining of the vessels, allows cholesterol to be deposited. However, we are not supposed to tell Canadians that because of these stupid and antiquated clauses in the Food and Drugs Act.
Arthritis is on that list. This perverse regulation, which still exists and which Health Canada seems determined to maintain, has the effect in clauses 3(1) and 3(2) of having Health Canada prosecute some of our most effective natural health product companies in Canada. For example, Strauss Herb Company has 219 charges against it. It is based in British Columbia. Mr. Strauss, an old-fashioned European-style herbalist with very good quality products, has been charged with some 219 charges recently by Health Canada under this antiquated act, over a half million dollars in legal charges.
After harassing the company and pushing the legal process as far as it could, it dropped the charges. Guess what? They will not stand a constitutional challenge. Health Canada will not win this case in court, but it can try to kill the company with a half million dollars in legal fees. This is unacceptable. Now Health Canada has gone and used GST and decided natural health products should be charged GST. It has backdated this retroactively and has come up with another half million dollars to try to squeeze the company that way because it did not charge GST on the products that were sold.
There is another company on Vancouver Island called Biomedica. It produces an excellent product called Recovery Medicine. There are people on the Hill whom I know are taking Recovery Medicine. It really helps with arthritis. This product won international recognition for the benefits in the racehorse industry. Frankly people in that industry spend a lot of money on their charges. A valuable animal could earn a lot of money for the owner. Recovery Medicine, was rated number one in the world for the improvement in horses with ligament and tendon injuries. Some would say that those are horses and we are people. Guess what? Ligaments and tendons are made out of the same stuff in horses as they are in people.
This product was tested on dancers in Denmark and they had phenomenal recovery rates. Yet, Health Canada says this company is violating subsections 3(1) and 3(2) because in 1934 we were so advanced in Canada. We already knew that recovery medicine, a simple natural health product, would not help people with arthritic problems.
The parliamentary secretary mentioned that, after all these years of research into arthritis, we know there is no cure, but it can be managed with drugs. Frankly, with that type of attitude, it will be another 40 years and we will still be managing these things. It is time to let science back into the debate and look at all avenues of approach in solving some of these problems.
If they are low cost, non-threatening, and there is no risk to the patient, why is Health Canada worried about over-regulating them? I would encourage all members to look at this subject seriously. We had agreement to take it to second reading the last time. In the last Parliament it was in committee and evidence was being heard.
A couple of members mentioned Empower Plus. We had principally women come here who had been impacted by bipolar disease, as well as many men. An 11-year-old boy was here. He came with his mother from Nova Scotia. He had only been able to go to school for a year and a half because prior to that he was trying to hurt himself all the time. This product has had a phenomenal effect on people with bipolar disease in particular.
Why is it that Health Canada would send in the police to raid this little company, with no evidence of harming anybody and tremendous evidence of benefit, steal its computers, and contact 3,000 Canadians to tell them to get back on their psychiatric drugs and off this natural vitamin and mineral based compound?
We have tremendous health costs in this country. It is time to let science back in. Science is not threatened by looking at something from a different angle. Science itself would say, “It looks like there is a benefit here. Why don't we research it?” It is time to open that envelope and look at all avenues of approach. I believe Canadians would appreciate that. Those who use these natural products will appreciate the freedom of choice and being able to access the natural products that they know benefit them.
I hope all members will take this matter seriously, stand with us, and amend it if we need to. Let us find a way to get these natural health products out to people without an unnecessary bureaucratic obstruction that limits their freedom of choice and freedom of information in such an important area.