Report from the Hill - July 21

July 21, 2009

Canadians can feel confident that the Government of Canada is working to protect their health and safety. In fact, protecting and promoting the health and safety of Canadians and their families is of the utmost importance to our Government. It is why we continue to take action to further improve Canadians’ health.

• In recent months, the Government of Canada has announced a number of important initiatives to protect the health and safety of Canadians, including:
• Proposing changes to the Tobacco Act to address the advertising and marketing of tobacco products to young people;
• Proposing regulatory action to prevent the use of certain chemicals in soft vinyl children’s toys that pose a health risk;
• Becoming the first country in the world to proceed with regulations prohibiting polycarbonate baby bottles that contain Bisphenol A (BPA);
• Proposing regulations to limit the lead content in products such as pacifiers, teethers, baby bottle nipples, plastic beverage straws and drinking cup spouts;
• Introducing Bill C-6, the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, to modernize and strengthen product safety laws, in part by improving the Government's ability to take timely compliance and enforcement actions when unsafe products are identified on the Canadian market;
• Working with provincial partners to reduce drug use among Canadians through the Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund;
• Fulfilling a promise from the 2008 Speech from the Throne by providing funding of $10 million over three years to support lung health initiatives to help Canadians prevent, detect and manage respiratory diseases;
• Providing $15 million over four years to support Canada’s first national population study on neurological diseases;
• Launching a three-year public education campaign to encourage parents to have their children immunized against certain diseases before the age of two years.

Our Government is also working with Canadians to ensure they have access to the latest safety information on health products. We recently introduced the MedEffect Canada social marketing campaign to encourage consumers and health-care professionals to report suspected side effects from health products and keep up-to-date on important safety data.

Our Government knows that each Canadian is unique, with different health concerns. We are committed to ensuring that our policies, programs and services meet the important health and safety needs of all Canadians. 

For more information about out Government’s health policies and initiatives, please visit Health Canada’s website at www.hc-sc.gc.ca, as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada’s website at www.publichealth.gc.ca.


Sincerely,


Leon Benoit, MP