Business
Industry blindsided by Ottawa’s plan to track ill effects of natural health products
A new plan to force hospitals to report adverse effects of “natural health products” such as herbal remedies and supplements has come as a surprise to manufacturers, who say they are blindsided by the proposed change. An entrance sign to a hospital is shown in Toronto on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Buhler
By Laura Osman in Ottawa
A new plan to force hospitals to report adverse effects of “natural health products” such as herbal remedies and supplements has come as a surprise to manufacturers, who say they were blindsided by the proposed change.
The federal government included the plan in the 2023 budget bill, which is still making its way through the House of Commons.
It would see natural health products fall under the same category as pharmaceuticals when it comes to how they are monitored once they are on the market.
They would be incorporated into Vanessa’s Law, which was passed in 2014 to improve the reporting of adverse health reactions.
It was named after 15-year-old Vanessa Young, the daughter of a Conservative member of Parliament, who died in 2000 after her heart rate had been affected by medication that was prescribed by her doctor.
Putting natural health products under that framework would require hospitals to report on any unintended consequences associated with them, so that Health Canada can recall them or order fixes if necessary.
The provisions had been discussed before, said Aaron Skelton, president of the Canadian Health Food Association. But “there was nothing that would have indicated to industry that it was imminent,” he said.
“The industry and the association were both caught off guard when we saw that included in the budget.”
The debate about whether to include natural health products in Vanessa’s Law when it was first introduced generated “quite the discussion” on Parliament Hill at the time, Sen. Judith Seidman, who sponsored the original bill in the Senate, told her colleagues at a recent committee hearing.
The government at the time decided against doing so.
Since then, several high-profile tragedies that saw parents and patients eschew conventional medicine in favour of natural remedies have prompted a renewed national conversation about the regulation of natural health products in Canada.
In 2021, the federal auditor general found that Health Canada fell short of making sure products were safe and effective, and that gaps in the monitoring of products on the market left consumers exposed to potential health and safety risks.
“I think post-market surveillance and monitoring for safety around natural health products is urgent,” Seidman, an epidemiologist and health researcher, told the Senate committee earlier this month.
Vanessa’s Law would also let Health Canada demand that manufactures make changes to their labels and recall unsafe products.
Skelton argued manufacturers are already responsible for reporting any ill effects associated with their products, and Health Canada already has the power to stop sales and seize products.
The decision to include natural products hasn’t been properly studied or debated, he said, and has instead been tucked into the omnibus budget bill.
“We have seen no consultation efforts to persuade us that the regulatory powers conferred in Vanessa’s Law would be appropriate for the lowest-risk products, such as natural health products,” he said.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the change is meant to address the fact that not all products are equally safe for consumption.
“The objective is to make sure that all health products, different types and different formulations, are treated the same way, so Health Canada has the ability, if needed, to intervene in circumstances in which the health and safety of Canadians at stake,” Duclos said at a press conference in Sudbury on Tuesday.
While natural health products are considered lower-risk than some prescription drugs, the Canadian Pharmacists Association has repeatedly tried to reinforce that there is still some risk in using them.
Ginseng, for example, which is often used in hopes of boosting the immune system, has been associated with some cases of increased blood pressure, the association’s Barry Power told Senators at committee this month.
He also pointed to cases of bleeding associated with ginkgo biloba, which is thought to increase memory function — a potentially serious side-effect for older people who also use anticoagulants that thin the blood.
The plan outlined in the budget is the latest in several regulatory changes the government has introduced to tighten rules about how products are marketed and sold to Canadians, including changes to the way products are labelled.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2023.
Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne speaks to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. Canada’s industry minister made a point of calling out Pepsi and Coca-Cola for not sending representatives to a meeting he convened on Monday with manufacturing companies to discuss stabilizing grocery prices. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canada’s industry minister made a point of calling out Pepsi and Coca-Cola for not sending representatives to a meeting he convened on Monday with manufacturing companies to discuss stabilizing grocery prices.
François-Philippe Champagne singled out the two companies when asked by a journalist what the consequences would be if major industry players did not succeed in stopping high inflation.
“This morning, (their CEOs) did not attend the meeting,” Champagne said of beverage giants Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
“I intend to call on them and I will continue to do so. … I don’t stop,” he told reporters.
The Canadian leaders of seven international manufacturing companies, including Nestlé and Kraft Heinz, met with Champagne.
He summoned them to answer to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s call earlier this month for Canadian grocers to come up with a plan to stabilize prices by Thanksgiving.
If major grocers fail to deliver ideas, Champagne said, “the consequence is for all 40 million Canadians because we will be able to see who is taking action and who is not.”
A government source told The Canadian Press that the CEOs of Pepsi and Coca-Cola responded to the federal government summons by stating they were not available Monday. The source was granted anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the matter.
It’s unclear, however, whether another meeting between major food companies and the government will take place.
Monday’s meeting brought together top Canadian executives from McCain, Unilever, Nestlé, Lactalis, Lassonde, Kraft Heinz, and Smucker Foods.
All avoided speaking with journalists. The CEO of the Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada association, Michael Graydon, attended the meeting and agreed to answer questions on their behalf.
Graydon called the meeting “very productive.”
”We’re very much about co-operation and support, collaboration,” he said. “It’s an industry that needs to align and work collectively to find a solution.”
He said manufacturers want to collaborate with other players in the supply chain, such as major retailers like Loblaw and Costco, whose leaders Champagne met with one week earlier.
In a statement, Pepsi said it is open to meeting with Champagne.
“We are pleased that our industry association, FHCP, led a productive conversation with the government and representatives from industry today,” it said.
“We were not able to attend today’s meeting, but we offered to meet with the minister. We are committed to collaborating with the government to identify solutions during this challenging time for Canadians.”
Trudeau has said that if the government isn’t satisfied with what major grocers come up with to stabilize prices, he would intervene, including with tax measures.
Graydon said it remains to be seen how detailed the plans will be by the government’s Thanksgiving deadline.
”We’ll have to see whether, you know, the detail of how much completeness can be done by that time. But I think everybody’s working very hard to achieve that,” Graydon said.
Champagne said he is happy Graydon “wants to do something,” because “it’s a gain for Canadians.”
“It’s clear that what’s important is that we have timelines, work plans, and obviously concrete actions,” the minister said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2023.
Toronto
The Canadian payment processing firm Moneris confirmed Saturday that credit and debit card transactions were interrupted by a network outage earlier in the day.
The Toronto-based technology company issued a statement saying there was nothing to suggest the outage was related to a cyber attack.
Complaints about outages started rolling in to the Downdetector.ca website before noon eastern time, but Moneris did not say when the outage started.
About three hours later, Moneris posted a message on X — the social media site formerly known as Twitter — saying it had resolved the network problem.
It remains unclear how many businesses and transactions were affected, but data provided by Downdetector.ca indicated complaints had come in from across the country.
In a statement provided to The Canadian Press, the company said the outage lasted about 90 minutes.
“We have resolved the network outage and returned transaction processing to normal,” the statement said. “We continue to investigate the root cause of the issue. There are no indications this appears to be cyber-attack related and all transaction systems are functioning normally again.”
The company, a joint venture between Royal Bank and BMO Bank of Montreal, said transaction processing could be slow as its systems catch up with the backlog.
Moneris says it supports more than 325,000 merchant locations across Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2024.
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