VANCOUVER - Health Minister Tony Clement says the Canadian government is putting together a plan to deal with counterfeit and dangerous imported products.
Clement told a meeting of the Canadian Medical Association on Monday that recent concerns about lead in toys from China and bacteria in toothpaste from South Africa pose major safety concerns. Clement said parents have the right to know their children's health won't be compromised because of dangerous products that Canada imports.
He later told reporters the government will review gaps in legislation, standards and regulations when it comes to foreign goods - including food - coming into Canada.
"What I've said to my reviewers is that this cannot languish on for months, that it really has to be a full-scale review, that it really has to come to a conclusion, knowing full well that there's a fall sitting of Parliament," Clement said.
The minister said the Hazardous Products Act has not been amended in at least 10 years but meanwhile, the amount of foreign products being manufactured by some countries has doubled and tripled in recent years.
During his speech, Clement also told the meeting of doctors that his government is preparing to roll out an anti-drug campaign for young people.
"Canada has not run a serious or significant anti-drug campaign for almost 20 years and the messages young people have been receiving during the past several years have been confusing and conflicting, to say the least," he said.
"We are very concerned about the damage and pain that drugs cause families and we intend to reverse the trend toward vague, ambiguous messaging that has characterized Canadian attitudes in the recent past," Clement said.
The minister noted that the United Nations office of Drugs and Crime has found 16.8 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 64 smoke marijuana.
He said that's the highest rate of any country in the world and the figure is almost equal to the number of tobacco smokers in Canada.
Clement's department said the government will aim to reduce the number of Canadians smoking tobacco to 12 per cent by 2011 from 19 per cent in 2006.
The Health Department also wants to reduce the number of teenagers aged 15 to 17 who smoke to nine per cent from 15 per cent.
At a news conference, Clement was asked what he will do about Vancouver's safe-injection site, which has been allowed to operate until Dec. 31.
At the facility, called Insite, IV drug users shoot up their own cocaine and heroin under a nurse's supervision. But to operate, it must be granted an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Insite is the only such clinic in North America. It opened four years ago as a pilot project but its future is uncertain because an extension to the exemption expires at the end of the year.
On Friday, two addicts and the Portland Hotel Society, a group that runs the facility, filed a lawsuit saying Ottawa should no longer have any say on Insite's future.
The lawsuit argued Insite should be exclusively under the jurisdiction of the province, which pays its costs.
About 24 studies in top international journals, including the Lancet and the British Medical Journal, have suggested the safe-injection site reduces the chance of addicts contracting blood-borne infections such as HIV because they're given clean needles before they inject themselves.
"We've said that we want to make sure that the research has been comprehensive," Clement said about Insite.
He said that since he extended the exemption to keep the clinic open until the end of the year, more research has been conducted.
"Some of it has been questioning of the research that has already taken place and questioning the methodology of those associated with Insite and the research that they've done," he said.
Colin McMillan, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said Insite must be considered part of a broad approach to dealing with illicit drugs, including prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
Doctors at the four-day meeting adopted various resolutions Monday, agreeing to urge the federal government to develop a Canada Extended Health Services Act to deal with medically necessary services not covered by medicare.
They include long-term care and prescription drugs for people who don't have a private health plan to pay for the majority of such costs.
McMillan said the government may have to consider unique approaches, including an RRSP-type plan aimed specifically at future health-care costs that would have the government give people tax breaks for saving money to pay for their health costs years later.
Several countries in Europe are looking at similar schemes, he said.
Dr. Brian Day, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said there are big gaps in the Canada Health Act, which needs to be modernized to meet people's needs, including prescription drugs.
"To me, it's inconsistent that drug treatment is not included in the realm of the Canada Health Act," he said, adding Canada is one of the only countries with universal health care but no national drug plan.
