A Line In The Sand
It has been five years since the Natural Health Product Regulations (the Regulations) came
into force with little progress in a number of key areas.
Changes must be made to ensure Canadians continue to have access and choice to a wide
variety of natural and organic products.
The time has come for our industry to draw a line in the sand. Our industry is a fully
regulated one. CHFA believes the federal government should:
1. Create a new framework that regulates NHPs as a separate category, neither food nor
drugs and recognize NHPs, including traditional medicines as generally low-risk substances
with a long history of importation, distribution and safe use in Canada and other countries;
2. Inform Canadians about the potential health benefits of NHPs;
3. Ensure the Regulations and their implementation are “enabling” so as to facilitate timely
access to the Canadian market for new and innovative products and for NHPs available to
practitioners and consumers in other countries;
4. Ensure assessors and inspectors are appropriately trained and have the right information,
measured (relative to risk) and phased in to allow industry to adjust; and,
Conduct compliance and enforcement activity so that it is applied equitably to both domestic
and imported products;
Members of the CHFA have strongly indicated that they are dissatisfied with the
interpretation and implementation of the Regulations to date. In a CHFA survey conducted
in the fall of 2008, 85 per cent of those interviewed did not think that the Health Canada
was processing product licensing applications in a timely fashion. Sixty-eight percent of
respondents were dissatisfied with the interpretation and implementation of the NHP
Regulations, whereas only 15 per cent felt satisfied.
And 100 per cent of industry executives interviewed recommended that the 2010 deadline
for full industry compliance with the Regulations should be extended.
The CHFA will continue to actively lobby for changes to the interpretation and
implementation of the Regulations that more appropriately reflect the 53 recommendations
included in the 1998 Standing Committee on Health’s Report on NHPs, Natural Health
Products – A Shared Vision.
Click Here to read 53 Recommendations
The line in the sand has been drawn. Join us and lend your support by writing your
Member of Parliament by logging onto www.saveournaturalhealthproducts.ca .
Also follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group
Add your voice to thousands of concerned Canadians from coast-to-coast-to coast.