Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the very important issue of tobacco labelling.
Over the past few months, Canadians have witnessed a bizarre spectacle from the Conservative government's Minister of Health. This past September in a closed door meeting the minister managed to overturn six years' worth of research and waste more than three million dollars' worth of funding in an announcement that stunned both her provincial health minister colleagues and Canadians across the country. Of course, I am referring to the decision to halt the rollout of renewed tobacco warning labels.
After years of product testing and impact research, these groundbreaking labels were ready to be printed and sold by January 2010. That is almost a year ago.
The new tobacco labelling rules would have replaced images which, frankly, after nearly a decade have gone stale, with new and updated photos. Studies have proven that images like these would decrease smoking rates but only if they are kept current. After a decade, I think we can all agree that it is time for a facelift.
There was even more to the program that the minister blocked. Health Canada would have increased the size of warning labels from the current 50% of the package to 75% of the package. To top it all off, every single tobacco product sold in Canada would have featured a 1-800 quit line that would link smokers struggling to quit with experts trained to provide that kind of advice.
These were regulations that Canadians wanted and would have been proud to support. It would have returned Canada to the forefront of the global fight against tobacco use, a position we used to have when our country first introduced warning labels to the world back in 2000.
In the weeks leading up to the surprise announcement, there was a sharp jump in the number of meetings the government held with representatives of the tobacco industry. From the Department of Health to the PMO, the government had twice as many meetings with big tobacco than with representatives of the health care community and civil society.
The results of this lobbying speak for themselves. The Minister of Health has sold Canadians out to big tobacco and allowed smoking regulations in Canada to languish. Instead of using labelling that science has proven to be effective, we get weak-kneed statements about Facebook and Twitter to try to do the job the government will not do itself. It is clear that the government cannot be trusted to stand up for the health of Canadians.
In light of this sordid and altogether incredible story, my questions for the government are simple. Why did the Minister of Health ignore Canadians' concerns and cave in to the tobacco lobby? Why is the government switching from scientifically based labelling to untested social media? Why is the government not capable of doing both at the same time? What is the minister waiting for?