Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the opposition's Bill C-460, an act respecting the implementation of the sodium reduction strategy for Canada.
I am also pleased to speak to our government's efforts, which are already starting to work, to address sodium reduction, as it is an important issue to all Canadians. Our government is fully committed to working with our stakeholders to reduce the average amount of sodium that Canadians consume.
However, we cannot support the heavy-handed approach to sodium reduction as proposed in Bill C-460. The approach to sodium reduction creates unnecessary red tape and additional financial costs to the taxpayers that may also result in unintended risks in food safety.
I will be walking through some of the highlights of how the measures proposed in this bill compare to the actual recommendations of the sodium working group and to the actions our government has taken with respect to sodium reduction.
I think it is important to highlight that the sodium working group recommendations were pan-Canadian recommendations. Pan-Canadian, in this context, means the recommendations were addressed to all levels of government, and even to individuals.
I would point out that Bill C-460 has excluded the province of Quebec. As was highlighted in the first hour of debate on this bill, it would seem rather impractical and costly to try to impose mandatory labelling requirements on the food industry to only selected parts of the country.
This side of the House wonders why it is only Quebec that is spared the heavy-handed provisions of this bill. If Quebec would benefit from an exemption from the bill, why not the rest of Canada? The experts did not recommend that Quebec be exempted. They recommended a pan-Canadian approach, which is what our government is pursuing. The experts also recommended a voluntary approach. The call for mandatory compliance with guidance levels as described in the bill stands in direct contrast to the working group's recommendations.
A voluntary approach is what we have in place now, with guidance for the food industry on reducing sodium in processed foods. The guidance provides direction to the food industry to continue with the sodium reduction efforts and help Canadians lower their average sodium intake.
The guidance, which provides specific benchmark levels for over 100 categories of processed foods, directly supports one of the working group's core recommendations, and that was to reduce the average amount of sodium consumed by Canadians from 3,400 milligrams per day to 2,300 milligrams per day, by 2016. Our government, along with provincial and territorial governments, endorsed this recommendation back in September 2010.
The bill also proposes that consumers be alerted to additional mandatory labels on packaged foods with sodium content that is above “target levels”. Again, this is not one of the recommendations of the working group, and for good reason. By focusing on a warning label just for sodium, Canadians could be misled into believing that sodium is the only nutrient about which they need to be educated. It is overall diets that have the greatest impacts on health, not any one food or nutrient.
This government has developed a number of tools to help Canadians make informed decisions about the foods they eat. This includes mandatory nutrition labelling for most packaged foods. There are also set criteria for phrases such as “low in sodium”, “salt-free” and “reduced in sodium”. These phrases can be used on food labels to help consumers identify foods that are lower in sodium.
Our government has invested $4 million for new activities as part of the healthy eating and awareness initiative. The goal is to help Canadians move towards healthier diets, which includes supporting them in reducing sodium intake.
The sodium working group recognized the importance of engaging all stakeholders, as does our government. However, this bill has overlooked this critical component of a strong sodium reduction strategy. Governments, Canadians and industry have important roles to play.
This bill proposes the establishment of an independent sodium reduction committee that excludes the food industry from the committee. This exemption would limit the successive activities already in progress and undermine the spirit of the working group's recommendations.
What we currently have in place is the food expert advisory committee. This committee has been extended to ad hoc members with expertise in areas of sodium to provide advice to this government on sodium issues. Members include some members from the former sodium working group, as well as some new experts.
Finally, the bill proposes that industry be required to report the sodium content in prepackaged food so that a public registry of this information could be established and maintained. We have heard about registries before. As has been previously stated, this registry would be ineffective. The cost to taxpayers to implement these measures would be significant. Maintaining a public registry for the 100,000 prepackaged food products sold in Canada would require considerable new resources and additional regulations and red tape. Again, this bill's proposed sodium registry was not recommended by the sodium working group.
Before I summarize, I want to point out that budget 2012, which both opposition parties voted against, contained measures which were in fact recommended by the working group and the red tape reduction committee. Both called for a streamlined approval for food additives, and budget 2012 delivered. I would point out that the opposition did not support those proposals.
Mr. Speaker, please allow me to summarize. The bill unnecessarily regulates mandatory sodium limits in prepackaged food. This is not consistent with the working group's recommendations. Our government is advancing a voluntary approach to sodium reduction, just as the working group recommended. The bill calls for misleading warning labels on foods that exceed sodium limits. This is not one of the sodium reduction strategy recommendations.
Our government will continue to take into account the full diet of Canadians in its approach to nutrition labelling and awareness and education initiatives, so that Canadians can make informed choices about the food they eat. My family and I read food labels all the time. I know it is simple to say and it may be tough to do, but if Canadians would simply take that one step before they put something in their shopping cart, we could avoid the necessity for bills such as the one proposed.
The bill would legislate the creation of an advisory committee that excludes the food industry. This is not in line with the sodium reduction strategy recommendation to take a multi-stakeholder approach. Our government will continue to seek the expertise of all stakeholders regarding sodium reduction initiatives.
If the bill is in fact to support the recommendations of the sodium working group, as the opposition claims, it has failed to meet that objective. It took a team of stakeholders nearly three years to develop the sodium reduction strategy for Canada. We are making progress, but time is needed to reach our sodium reduction goals. That is why provincial and territorial health ministers agreed to a 2016 deadline.
In closing, I cannot support this bill. It is not consistent with what the experts have recommended. It increases costs for Canadians and red tape for industry in its heavy-handed proposal for a wasteful and ineffective sodium registry, just like the other wasteful and ineffective registries we have finally taken off the backs of Canadians.
It is unnecessary because our approach is working. My hope would be that all members of the House will continue to work with our government on this important file. We will continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders to reduce the sodium intake of Canadians. By increasing education, awareness and guidance to the industry, we believe it is the balanced approach that will deliver results.