Bill C-51: An Interview with Federal Minister of Health, Tony Clement
by author Terry-Lynn Stone

Q: Finally, Mr. Clement, I would like you to speak to how you see the consultation process going forward from here. Can you reassure our readers that the natural health products they’ve come to rely on will be available, and that there won’t be massive increases in price because of unreasonable demands from Health Canada for testing or research?

A: Right. Well, I guess you’ve got a health minister and a Conservative caucus who are, in many cases, very close to their constituents who consume natural health products. We’ve heard the concerns, and I’ve heard some of the concerns of my fellow Conservative caucus members, and so we’re going to make sure that this bill is fair and reasonable. At the same time, I have an obligation to protect the health and safety of Canadians and that will not go away. So I guess my message to your readers is that this bill will actually increase the availability of products. It will ensure better safety of products. And it actually ushers in a brand new partnership between the natural health products industry and the Canadian government. And that’s the part that I’m most excited about. When all of the sound and fury dies away, and you’ve got a new bill that’s more modern and more effective, then that will have very positive impacts in the years ahead, so I’m very optimistic. I think that we’ve actually turned a corner and we’re finding that we agree on more things than we disagree on. And this will actually be very exciting for the natural health products industry in the future.

Source: alive Special Web Exclusive