Excise taxes on small distillers would be cut 49 percent under a private Conservative bill in the Commons. A similar 2006 cut in beer taxes was credited with fueling the nation’s micro-brewery craze: “There is quite a bit of tax in a bottle”.
The Department of Health is expanding a national check-up on Canadians’ exposure to lead, pesticides, PCBs and other substances. Thousands of people will be tested for exposure to chemicals, including a flame retardant banned only six years ago as a health risk.
“Chemical substances are everywhere,” the department wrote; “For the majority of chemicals, the data will serve as a starting point for comparison with data from future surveys to determine how and why these levels may be changing over time.”
The department in a notice said consultants will be hired to analyze blood and urine samples from Canadians nationwide to test for trace chemicals. So-called biomonitoring data were last collected in 2009, 2011 and 2013 under a Canadian Health Measures Survey conducted by Statistics Canada. Researchers last tested 5,800 people including children as young as 3.
New check-ups will track polybrominated flame retardants used to treat household furniture, carpets and other products. Regulators in 2014 banned another chemical, tris 2-chloroethyl phosphate, used in children’s pillows, toys and pajamas. The European Union cited the substance as carcinogenic.
“Biomonitoring provides an estimate of exposure to a chemical,” the health department wrote in a 2015 Third Report On Human Biomonitoring Of Environmental Chemicals In Canada. “However, a chemical’s presence alone will not necessarily result in adverse health effects. The risk a chemical substance poses is determined by evaluating its toxicity and the levels to which people may be exposed.”
StatsCan researchers earlier concluded 100 percent of Canadians test positive for blood lead levels, although in small concentrations, decades after regulators restricted the commercial use of lead. Most leaded gasoline was banned in 1990; lead content in paint has been heavily regulated since 1976.
Bans on lead in consumer products followed research in Canada and the U.S. dating from 1926 that proved links between exposure and numerous health problems in children including lower IQ, hyperactivity and reproductive damage.
Lead remains listed as a toxin under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Environment Canada in 2014 proposed first-ever regulation of lead used in auto wheel weights, estimating some 114 tonnes a year fall of tire rims and are pulverized into toxic dust. The department in 2013 also reviewed the environmental risk of lead shot used by hunters. Lead shot is already banned in national wildlife areas, and for hunting most migratory birds.
Biomonitoring will also examine Canadians’ exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls once commonly used in electrical transformers and other equipment. Canada outlawed the manufacture, sale and import of cancer-causing PCBs in 1977 under a United Nations Stockholm Convention On Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Other chemicals to be tested include acrylamide; arsenic; bisphenol A; benzene; cadmium; chlorophenols; fluorene; fluoride and mercury.
By Mark Bourrie 
One of the country’s largest business schools is suing a faculty member for alleged breach of the Copyright Act. Western University’s Ivey Business School claims a professor copied its licensed works for email distribution to two Asian universities: “How much do you know about China?”
Health Canada should strike an all-scientific panel to revise its national Food Guide free of industry influence, says a Senate report. It follows criticism the current Guide reflects lobbying by food processors and agri-business groups.
“We know now it is not the basis of a good healthy diet,” said Senator Dr. Kelvin Ogilvie (Conservative-N.S.), chair of the Senate social affairs committee; “One of the things we want to do is put an emphasis on the whole meal, as opposed to individual nutrients.”
The committee in a report Obesity In Canada criticized the Guide for promoting fruit juice as a healthy substitute for raw fruit. Senators also heard testimony that recommended dairy consumption of 3 cups a day for adults is excessive; a half-litre of 1% white milk contains 216 calories.
“Fruit juice, for instance, is presented as a healthy item when it is little more than a soft drink without the bubbles,” Obesity said; “It contains all the sugar from several pieces of fruit, none of the fibre, and the vitamin content may be compromised due to the production methods used.”
“The Nutrition Facts Table of orange juice would indicate that it is high in vitamin C, but was described by one witness as not much better nutritionally than soft drinks, given the high sugar content,” the report said. “An orange, on the other hand, consumed as a whole fruit, contains more than the daily recommended amount of vitamin C but comes with the intrinsic fibre of the fruit, which lowers the glycemic load.”
Too Much Milk?
“There is no way that fruit juice should be counted as a fruit and vegetable,” Dr. David Hammond, associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health, said in an earlier interview. “Eat fruit; you get less added sugar.”
The Senate committee urged that regulators appoint a panel of physicians, nutritionists and researchers to revise the Guide with recommendations based on actual meals, not nutrients, and specifically exclude input from food processors and agriculture lobbyists.
“We don’t want this process to be biased,” said Prof. Jean-Philippe Chaput, an obesity researcher with the University of Ottawa. “If the food industry is part of this, it doesn’t work — because of course they want people to eat more. It needs to be unbiased.”
The Senate committee over the course of its two-year investigation heard complaints of lobbyists’ influence on the Food Guide. “There is no evidence that suggests that every Canadian in the country should be drinking two or three glasses of milk a day,” Dr. Anna Issakoff-Meller of the Guelph, Ont. Family Health Team earlier testified at Senate committee hearings.
“There has never been any study in the history of time that says that that will confer specific health benefits,” Issakoff-Meller said. “We don’t know why that recommendation was made, but certainly there was the nutrition manager for the British Columbia Dairy Foundation who was sitting on the 12-member advisory panel of the Food Guide at the time of this current Guide’s creation. Maybe she got a raise afterwards; I don’t know.”
The Guide was last revised in 1982, 1992 and 2007. It details recommended daily consumption of grains; fruit and vegetables; dairy products and meat and fish. “All witnesses agreed that Canadians need to eat more whole foods – namely vegetables, fruits, nuts and meat – and they need to stay away from highly processed foods,” said Obesity, which followed a two-year investigation by the Senate panel; “Several witnesses agreed that Canada’s Food Guide has been at best ineffective, and at worst enabling, with respect to the rising levels of unhealthy weights and diet-related chronic diseases in Canada.”
Waterloo’s School of Health in 2015 research found only 53 percent of Canadians surveyed could identify the basic food groups listed in the Guide. “Canada’s dated food guide is no longer effective in providing nutritional guidance to Canadians,” Senators wrote.
By Kaven Baker-Voakes
Soda pop, chocolate milk and other beverages laced with added sugar must be taxed to offset obesity-related medicare costs, says a Senate report. Legislators also called for plainer labeling of processed food ingredients, and endorsed a national ban on children’s food advertising already proposed by Health Canada: “There is an obesity crisis in this country”.
Natural Resources Canada warns of more catastrophic wildfires following 2015 disasters that destroyed 9.8 million acres of forest. The department in a ministerial memo cited fire as an “increasing threat”.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency denies budget cuts impacted its work despite a U.S. audit that found nearly a million pounds of meat were rejected at the border as contaminated. The audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture was conducted in 2014 but only disclosed this past January 20.
“There are no outstanding issues,” said Barbara Jordan, Agency vice-president of policy and programs. “There never was any impact on trade. The final audit report confirms that Canada’s meat, poultry and egg inspection systems are equivalent to the United States’ inspection system.”
The audit by the U.S. Food Safety & Inspection Service noted that of 2.3 billion pounds of Canadian meat and poultry shipped across the border over an 18-month period, a total 907,000 pounds were rejected due to listeria or fecal contamination.
American inspectors had “major concerns in regard to the adequacy of the CFIA inspection verification procedures for its zero tolerance verification activities in two audited establishments,” the U.S. Service wrote; “FSIS also questions the adequacy of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency verification procedures.”
The audit of nine Canadian processing plants was conducted between May 28 and June 13, 2014. The processors were not named.
Budget cuts at the inspection agency averaged up to $55.7 million a year at the time, according to newly-released Treasury Board accounts. The union representing inspectors also obtained a 2015-2016 Corporate Business Plan that detailed plans for an 18 percent reduction in meat and poultry inspections.
“It’s not a surprise,” said Bob Kingston, national president of the Agriculture Union that obtained the plan through Access To Information. “You will see the deficiencies described were not related to missing technology; they’re related to not having enough people to carry out the tasks they’re saying are required.”
“None of this surprises us,” Kingston said. “We’re hoping this might wake them up to the importance of getting those positions filled so that they can deliver on their mandate.”
Business Plan indicated funding for meat and poultry inspection was to be cut from $191 million a year to $156 million by 2017, with a reduction in staff from 1,812 employees to 1,539. “The Agency will assess the level of resources required for these initiatives,” Business Plan said.
“The new CFIA food program is designed to direct resources to the areas of highest risk across all food commodities,” Business Plan said; “Overall Agency resources decrease from 2013 to 2018 primarily due to various savings initiatives that focus on back office efficiencies and administrative changes that do not impact frontline services or food safety, and the sun-setting of resources for various initiatives under the Food Safety Program.”
American inspectors also audited egg processing plants, noting Canadian exports to the U.S. totalled 19.6 million pounds over an 18-month period. Only 60 pounds were rejected at the border “for reasons other than food safety”, the U.S. audit said.
The Consumers Council of Canada yesterday said in a commentary the audit raised legitimate worries over food safety. “Canada’s system of food safety has been undergoing a sea-change in approach to oversight and enforcement,” the Council wrote. “The voice of Canadian consumers in that process, through organized institutionally-capable representation, is weak. Canadian consumers think consumer groups have resources to act for them, which they simply do not. Canadian public policy has neglected this problem.”
“Industry and the objectives of governments — whether defined by special interests, ideology, fiscal or bottom-line objectives or unintended sloth, permeate the food safety system,” the Council wrote.
By Dale Smith
A federal labour board has ordered reinstatement and $25,000 in damages for an angry Transport Canada engineer fired for slapping his supervisor. Spiteful management appeared to go out of its way to needle the man, an adjudicator ruled: “Two cubicle neighbours heard the slap and loud voices”.
Consumer advocates are protesting a federal proposal to restrict complaints against airlines. The Transport Canada report appeared to target groups including one Halifax-based advocate who filed 14 complaints in three years.
“When I look at how bitterly Air Canada and Air Transat have complained about me, I take this as a compliment,” said Dr. Gabor Lukács of the group Air Passenger Rights. “It means I’ve done a good job. How many consumer advocates get targeted to the point they want to change the law?”
The statutory review of the Canada Transportation Act recommended regulations be rewritten to limit complaints to individuals personally affected by service issues. Lukács filed 14 complaints on behalf of passengers denied boarding, refused compensation for delays and other grievances at Air Canada, Air Transat, British Airways, Delta, Porter Airlines, SkyGreece Airlines, Sunwing Airlines Inc., United Air Lines and WestJet.
Lukács has also acted as lead plaintiff in twelve separate court applications against airlines and regulators at the Canadian Transportation Agency. “Those people who were there had absolutely no qualifications or expertise in consumer issues, especially not in air passenger rights,” he said.
The review by former industry minister David Emerson lamented the current complaints-based system at the Agency. “The status quo is untenable,” Emerson wrote in his report Pathways: Connecting Canada’s Transportation System To The World. “It creates higher transaction costs and uncertainty for carriers; a lack of consistency, transparency and predictability for passengers; and an overload of complaints by a very small number of well-meaning and highly motivated individuals seeking to strengthen passenger rights one case at a time, in the absence of a strong industry-wide code.”
Lukács was not cited by name. The Consumers’ Association of Canada said the call for restricting advocacy complaints was surprising. “I’m absolutely astounded to find this,” said Bruce Cran, Association president.
“They want to eliminate the people that do the most for consumers – the consumer advocates and groups that identify problems and take them up and make legal challenges,” Cran said. “It’s a further demonstration of the anti-consumer attitude that the Agency has had.”
“It’s very disconcerting to have this happen,” said Cran. “I’m very impressed that someone like Dr. Lukács is there to take on the airline structure and passenger rights, and now they want to cut that off and they want to cut us off, because we’re the only other group that ever speaks on this issue in any fashion.”
Pathways did recommend that Parliament adopted a uniform Passenger Bill Of Rights mandating compensation for passengers who suffer flight delays, lost luggage, denial of boarding and other service disruptions. MPs have repeatedly rejected the proposal, though the Transportation Agency notes Canada remains the only industrialized country without such a bill.
The Transport Canada report also urged that regulators compel Canadian airlines to disclose confidential data on flight delays and other service issues, similar to a U.S. requirement of the Bureau of Transportation. The Transportation Agency estimates it receives only a fraction of actual complaints – fewer than 400 a year at Air Canada and WestJet, though the airlines carry some 40 million passengers annually.
By Dale Smith
Federal climate change targets lack a fulsome explanation and regulatory detail, say advocates. An Environment Canada Strategy For Canada 2016-2019 was deemed weak and vague: “There needs to be a lot more detail here”.
Cabinet says Canada should ratify a European trade pact as is, despite worries over the impact on contractors. Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said she could find no valid criticism of the 2013 agreement: “All that remains now is signing”.
One of the nation’s largest food processors faces a Federal Court lawsuit alleging breach of the Competition Act. Kraft Canada Inc. is accused of selling “100% Parmesan cheese” that includes edible cellulose manufactured from wood chips: “Such products are not in fact 100% Parmesan”.
The Commons will vote in principle next week to quash two Conservative labour bills targeted for repeal. The March 7 vote follows debate that saw opposition MPs make 62 separate references to “union bosses”.
Canada will end a culture of “secrecy” with proposals to force disclosure of public records withheld by cabinet and parliamentary institutions, says Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault. The Treasury Board has proposed expanding powers of the Access To Information Act this term: “There’s a lot of secrecy”.
Parliament’s failure to pass DNA privacy legislation has fostered public fear over misuse of genetic testing by employers, says Canada’s chief human rights commissioner. Two bills prohibiting unauthorized use of DNA data lapsed without coming to final votes in 2015: “It is now time to do so”.
