Mr. Speaker, I agree with our colleague that in the range of options available to consumers, there are some natural products that can be very beneficial. However, with all due respect, there were a few problems with the wording of the bill.
Nevertheless, let us use this as an example. For several months, we considered the bill of another colleague—not the bill on natural food products and natural health products—on fetal alcohol syndrome. We had the same reaction.
At the committee table, people called for a national strategy for fetal alcohol syndrome. When we looked at the elements of this strategy, we realized that the responsibility and expertise of the federal government hardly went beyond information.
They printed off pamphlets and sent them to various professional bodies. These pamphlets contained information on preventing the syndrome. However, beyond that, when you go to a doctor's office for a prescription or a healing strategy, the federal government cannot help.
I think it is no different for fetal alcohol syndrome than it is for mental illness, cardiovascular disease or cancer. The federal government might be able to invite people to come to the table to exchange information, but we do not need a national strategy for that.
The best system and the best service the federal government could provide is to increase transfer payments, just as all the provinces have been asking it to do for almost 10 years.