Health committee  I really have nothing to add to your list. I'm here to represent the non-alcoholic beverage sector, given some of the earlier confusion on the topic. Thank you.

Health committee  Thank you very much for inviting me to present here on behalf of the Canadian Beverage Association. We are the national voice for the beverage industry, representing more than 60 brands, the majority of non-alcoholic, non-dairy beverage producers in Canada. That includes many companies that produce energy drinks, which have been sold around the world for over 30 years.

Finance committee  I would say it's cross-departmental coordination. For example, in the last budget, the food and beverage industry as a whole was very happy to be identified along with the agrifood chain as a supercluster targeted for growth. We're excited about the opportunities that will happen from field to fork, or from field to bottle in my industry.

Finance committee  Shockingly, nothing, other than let us do what we do: innovate, bring new products to market, and market them. Let us adapt to changing tastes, and let our industry continue to grow here in Canada.

Finance committee  It is. That's why I mentioned that the economic analysis study that will be issued later in the month, I believe, by the advertisement marketing industry shows an approximate $10 billion hit to the GDP.

Finance committee  The definition of “healthy” and “unhealthy” is pretty difficult. I believe Health Canada is trying to put together a matrix on that, in order to meet exactly what you said. I don't want to speak for the dairy folks because I don't represent them, but with your example of cheese, yes, it is high in fat and will probably fall under unhealthy.

Finance committee  I would say it is a combination of both. Certainly customer tastes are changing, and our member companies, because they're businesses, are rushing to meet those preferences. Last year alone, three of our largest members introduced at least 25 new products that are either low or no calorie, low or no sugar, into the Canadian market.

Finance committee  First of all, earlier this year, the World Health Organization did talk about taxation, but they actually stated that it is not a cost-effective manner of reducing obesity. They did recommend that countries do it, but they did state that it is not cost effective. We have to be careful interpreting what the World Health Organization did say.

Finance committee  Yes. Two years ago we made a very public announcement, partnering with the Conference Board of Canada, regarding our balance calories initiative. It was a commitment by our industry to reduce calories—which, again, in our beverages are sugar—by 20% over the next 10 years. No other industry has made such a commitment, and no other industry is actually in a place where it can deliver on that.

Finance committee  Sorry, I missed the first part of it. I think you said the University of Waterloo.

Finance committee  Let me first refer to the University of Waterloo report. It was significantly flawed. The dataset that was used—I can share with you correspondence that we wrote to the university without having received a reply—was sliced into several large categories, and it did not include diet and beverages without sugar.

Finance committee  Very quickly, Quebec's law outlaws essentially all marketing to children. What the bill that's coming over to the House of Commons does is that it differs in three very significant ways. First, it's only targeted at certain food and beverage products, so it's not all marketing to children but different.

Finance committee  As far as our industry's track record, I would again refer you to the recent compliance audited report that was issued two weeks ago, I believe, which showed that the beverage industry is meeting its targets when it comes to not advertising to children 12 and under. In relation to the bill that's been introduced in the Senate and is now making its way to the House of Commons, first of all, our members have done business in the province of Quebec since their legislation was introduced sometime in the eighties, and we're compliant.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. There's a study out of the University of Mexico, which I'd be happy to provide for the committee, that showed there had been between 10,000 and 11,000 job losses up and down the value chain.

Finance committee  We don't have the data on how exactly that would affect the Canadian industry, but all we have to do is look around the globe where these kinds of taxes have been introduced and we see that there's been a similar pattern. Philadelphia recently introduced a tax in the city of Philadelphia, and there have been 200 union job losses there.