Health committee  No.

Health committee  I don't think the problems are with the act. Our concern is whether there will be resources to make the act work properly. That's what we're all alluding to. If we don't have those resources, this is not going to have the desired effect.

Health committee  The way I see it is that the act does in fact provide an onus on ensuring that a product is not hazardous to the health of consumers. So imports would be covered by virtue of the fact that the retailer of that product could be liable—and liable for a huge fine if they sold a haza

Health committee  Well, I'm a consumer, and I haven't got the faintest idea what you're talking about. I think that's part of the problem right there. The minister could publish a list that may have hundreds of items on it. We cannot reasonably expect shoppers to walk into a store carrying that li

Health committee  I think that perhaps this issue of labeling has been very much overstated--the requirement for over and above what already exists--as Mr. Mussar has pointed out. The concern about carcinogenic products and other things that are hazardous to our health are covered under the genera

Health committee  No disagreement, and I think it's allowed for.

Health committee  Unfortunately, that's a very simplistic statement.

Health committee  When that is stated, how do we...? There is all the other information that is required in the back of it. What is a toxic chemical? How does the consumer know about this? Does that information actually tell them anything, or does it only confuse them? I can't agree with that sta

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. The Consumers' Association of Canada is a 62-year-old, independent, not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization, with a national office in Ottawa, and provincial and territorial representatives. Our mandate is to inform and educate consumers on marketpla

Agriculture committee  I'd like to think that, but I'm not too sure it happens, unfortunately. It may happen more at a subconscious level. When using that can of something, as you are opening it or holding it, you may be reading it. I don't think people are very likely to sit down and read all of the l

Agriculture committee  You've just introduced a whole bunch of topics there, unfortunately. As we've said, we want the information that is provided to be accurate. Right now we are talking about “Product of Canada”. We are not asking for specifications on how a product shall be made, or anything like t

Agriculture committee  I think they go hand in hand. One is that we have a “Product of Canada” designation that is being misused and is not clear, because there really is no proper definition. So to start with, just what does it mean? The second is that there are apparently products getting on the shel

Agriculture committee  I think, ideally, if manufacturers could do it and if consumers had the time to read all the labels, it would be nice to have very, very specific information, which would mean that every label probably would have to be about that big. In practical terms, when we're running throu

Agriculture committee  I think it is relatively simple when we are talking about a product of Canada, again, as I have said many times now, as long as we separate the origin of the content from the economic value to Canada. We are talking, from a consumer perspective, about the origin of the product, i

Agriculture committee  This really is off topic, but I agree about the CFIA. In fact, in general we feel that consumer protection measures in this country over roughly the past 20 years have been quite lax. There are agencies that are supposed to be protecting Canadian consumers. Canadian consumers are