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ARCHIVED - Re: "A bureaucrat's dream come true" – November 29, 2010, National Post

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Letter to the Editor
2010-213
December 1, 2010

Bill C-36, the proposed Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, will modernize and strengthen Canada’s product safety legislation and provide new ways to quickly and effectively protect the health and safety of Canadians.

Despite what your editorial states, for the past 40 years, Health Canada inspectors have had authority under the Hazardous Products Act to access places of business where consumer products are for sale. The proposed new legislation will permit inspectors to continue to do so. The editorial suggests that such a power is unique to this bill, when in fact it is a common property of similar legislation. Public health inspectors, for example, are not required to have a warrant to access restaurants, as that would severely limit the efficacy of such inspectors and compromise the safety of consumers.

All government bills, including Bill C-36, are examined by the Department of Justice for consistency with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights. Furthermore, the proposed legislation would not impose onerous reporting requirements. These requirements are similar to those already in place in the U.S. and the E.U., and are not unfamiliar to companies with international operations.

And finally, the proposed legislation allows the sharing of confidential business information only for the purpose of protecting human health or safety. Unless the danger is serious and imminent, this sharing of information can only occur within the context of a confidentiality agreement.

Leona Aglukkaq
Minister of Health

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