| Historical Information |
|---|
| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
C-368 – An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (natural health products) – declares that natural health products are not therapeutic and as such won’t be subject to the same regulations as other drugs.
It’s worth noting here that the regulations on natural health products were introduced as part of the 2023 budget, so this is only reversing that decision.
Progress
C-368 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed with 171 voting in favour and 146 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 146 | 4 |
| Conservative | 116 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 27 | 0 | 3 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
The Liberals are opposed to this Act as it reverses regulations they put in place. They call out that since the new regulations have been put in place 36 inspections were done on manufacturers and importers, all of them had compliance issues, and 15 had severe compliance issues. They also call out that there have been 100 recalls of products due to safety concerns, including contamination and the presence of harmful substances.
The Bloc support this Act because the current regulations were put in a budget bill, and they don’t like that. They also argue that all those inspections were done on areas where it was already known there were problems, so of course they found a lot of problems.
The NDP have the same complaint, that new regulations on natural health products should have been introduced in their own bill and not as part of an omnibus budget bill.
C-368 is now before the Standing Committee on Health (HESA) for review.
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