International Trade committee  Madam Chair, I'm happy to provide details of that. We have consulted very closely with industry stakeholders on the development of this pathway, starting out with engagements in 2019, as I've mentioned. Our idea was to make sure that our approach to the regulatory design would be met with good support from the different stakeholders, so leading up to the publication of the regulations in 2021, we consulted with stakeholders in July of 2019 and then through several months up to 2021, when the regulations were published.

International Trade committee  The new regulations will definitely provide additional ways for products to enter the market, but without sacrificing oversight of these products. We'll continue to ensure that the required scientific and regulatory standards are met, and then on the post-market side we'll continue as well to make sure that we monitor the safety of these products.

International Trade committee  Can you repeat the question, please?

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. One of the ways that will definitely increase the alignment is bringing it all under one regulatory framework. This will make sure that it's well aligned with how these products are regulated in other countries. They're all regulated similarly under a similar framework.

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely. We consulted quite broadly on it. We started our consultations in 2019, and, in the last few years leading up to Canada Gazette, part I—CGI—we continued to consult. We launched our CGI consultation last year, with ongoing engagement following CGI as we worked towards CGII to revise the proposal.

International Trade committee  There is broad support in some areas. There is mixed support in others. There is a bit of concern on one of the aspects of the proposal that has to do—

International Trade committee  It's the use of foreign decision.

International Trade committee  Yes, that's where the concern lies.

International Trade committee  From our perspective, yes. For that reason, there is broad support. Because of the streamlining under one single framework, that aspect of the proposal is broadly supported.

International Trade committee  First of all, what we're aiming to improve is bringing the regulation of these products under a single framework under the Food and Drugs Act. Currently there are different categories of these products that are regulated under different acts that have different requirements and different timelines for the review.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. That is absolutely our aim, because in the regulations of these products there is a tremendous amount of international engagement and collaboration. The standards that we apply in Canada for these products are international standards that many other countries also use, and for that reason, if we rely on an international review of these products, it would not jeopardize our standards.

International Trade committee  Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Celia Lourenco. I am the associate assistant deputy minister of the health products and food branch at Health Canada. I am joined by David Lee, chief regulatory officer of the health products and food branch, as well as colleagues from Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency and Global Affairs Canada.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. As I mentioned, we are currently looking at the comments we received through our consultation, and we will adjust our proposal. Based on the proposal we have consulted on, if we look at the majority of companies on the market, over 60% of the companies are small businesses.

Health committee  The cost-recovery proposal was developed based on the current cost of the program and the estimated costs with the improvements that we would like to put in place: improvements to inspections and to monitoring online advertising and just increasing resources in those areas to make sure products on the market are safe for Canadians.

Health committee  Our current estimated cost for the program, with the improvements, is about $100 million.