July 2008 — VOLUME 6 ISSUE 7
Natural health industry
concerned with Bill C-51
The bill that has the natural health industry in an uproar may just need a slight revision.
There are differing opinions from every side: some want it, some fear it and some think it's irrelevant. Many natural health product retailers and producers would like to make a few changes to the wording.
Bill C-51 was originally introduced in 2003 under a different name. It's nothing new, however recently a large number of petitioners, concerned citizens and business owners started protests against the Bill, saying it would be a threat to their rights and would make it harder to obtain widely-used natural health products.
The Bill, which falls under Canada's Proposed Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan, is proposed to amend the outdated Food and Drugs Act to "modernize the regulatory system for foods and therapeutic products" and to "support effective compliance and enforcement actions" as well as "enable a greater transparency and openness of the regulatory system".
While many people have no problem with the food and pharmaceuticals part of the bill, there are mixed feelings about the definitions of "therapeutic products" which lumps natural health products such as vitamins and minerals in with pharmaceuticals.
Alexa Monahan, marketing director for Nature's Fare, believes there should be a separate category for natural health products due to their vast differences.
"Natural health products have been used for thousands of years with little to no side effects," she says. "In reality nobody in Canada has ever died from using a natural health product and over 100,000 people die every year in North America from pharmaceuticals so they're not the same thing and that's our problem."
Monahan also believes regulating natural health products similarly to pharmaceuticals will require manufacturers and producers to acquire unaffordable licenses. However, a government of Canada website, www.healthycanadians.ca, states that "Bill C-51 doesn't change the requirements for site licensing of the natural health product industry" and the establishment license quoted in the bill is just an umbrella term to support a number of different licenses.
Jim Strauss, manager of Strauss Herb Co., a Kamloops-based homeopathic business, also believes natural health products should have their own category but he's primarily concerned with the enforcement parts of the bill and how many times the "opinions" or "beliefs" of the inspectors are mentioned.
"The issue with it is that Bill C-51 and C-52 deal only with enforcement and enforcement isn't based on regulations that we have," he says referring to the Natural Health Products Regulations introduced in 2004 to govern the safety and issuance of products like Strauss Herb Co.'s. "Inspectors can seize property or a product if they believe there's a problem . . . there doesn't actually have to be a problem, but as long as the inspector believes there's a problem or even if they believe there's going to be a problem [they can seize property]."
Kamloops Thompson Cariboo MP Betty Hinton, says she's used natural health products for the last 25 years, and believes much of the recent uproar concerning Bill C-51 has to do with misinformation and poor presentation of the bill.
"In terms of maybe presenting it better I think probably the minister could have done better but I don't think he had any idea that there would be this kind of backlash over nothing," she states. "This [bill] is all part and parcel of making certain that Canadians are safe . . . I just can't believe what I'm reading about needing a prescription for Vitamin C, not true."
Hinton argues Bill C-51 would actually make the health product industry better and she says the government is only trying to protect its countrymen.
"All we're trying to do is protect Canadians, not infringe on their right to go to Nature's Fare or Nutter's or their local drug store. Nobody wants to stop that from happening," she says.
Bill C-51 is currently finishing its third reading in parliament after which, if still approved, would go to the Senate and become law. Companies like Nature's Fare and Strauss Herb Co. are speaking with local members of parliament and encourage concerned citizens to do the same.
"We want a workable regulatory structure and so does Health Canada," says Strauss. "I don't know where this came from but aside from it being outside our constitution it's not workable."
Visit www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications to read Bill C-51.
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