Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Social Affairs, Science and Technology

Issue No. 27 - Fifteenth Report of the Committee

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology has the honour to present its

FIFTEENTH REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill S-228, An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (prohibiting food and beverage marketing directed at children), has, in obedience to the order of reference of December 5, 2016, examined the said bill and now reports the same with the following amendments:

1. Preamble, pages 1 and 2:

(a) On page 1, replace lines 26 and 27 with the following:

"obese into adulthood'' and

(b) on page 2:

(i) add after line 6 the following:

"Whereas leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization and its regional offices such as the Pan American Health Organization, have developed evidence-based nutrient profiling models that serve as a basis for classifying food as unhealthy according to their nutritional composition for reasons related to preventing disease and promoting health;'',

(ii) replace line 22 with the following:

"Whereas the Senate Committee recommended,'', and

(iii) add after line 27 the following:

"And whereas it is widely acknowledged that marketing to children has spread well beyond the traditional media of television, radio and print to include online and other digital content and celebrity and character endorsement, and it is therefore critical that restrictions on marketing of food and beverages to children cover all potential marketing media in a broad and robust fashion in order to provide fulsome protection to young Canadians;''.

2. Clause 2, page 3: Replace line 3 with the following:

"children means persons who are under 17 years of age;''.

3. Clause 4, pages 3 to 5:

(a) On page 3, replace lines 10 to 29 with the following:

"Advertising Directed at Children

7.1 Subject to the regulations, no person shall advertise unhealthy food in a manner that is directed primarily at children.

7.2 (1) Despite the Trade-marks Act, the registration of a trade-mark shall not be held invalid on the basis of paragraph 18(1)(b) or (c) of that Act as a result of compliance with this Act or any regulations made under it for the purposes of section 7.1.

(2) For greater certainty, the absence of use of a trade-mark as a result of compliance with this Act or any regulations made under it for the purposes of section 7.1 constitutes special circumstances that excuse the absence of use for the purposes of the Trade-marks Act.'';

(b) on page 4, delete lines 1 to 28; and

(c) on page 5, delete lines 1 to 12.

4. Clause 5, page 5: Replace lines 15 to 37 with the following:

"(e.1) for the purposes of section 7.1,

(i) defining unhealthy food or setting out the criteria for determining whether a food is unhealthy, and

(ii) setting out the factors to be considered in determining whether unhealthy food is advertised in a manner that is primarily directed at children, including how, when and where an advertisement is communicated;''.

5. Clause 6, page 6: Replace line 1 with the following:

"6 This Act comes into force on the second anniversary of the''.

Respectfully submitted,

KELVIN KENNETH OGILVIE

Chair