January 05, 2011

I hope everyone enjoyed a joyous holiday season with family and friends.
In 2011, our Conservative Government hopes to build on the successes of 2010. We took important steps to protect Canadian consumers, make our streets and communities safer, and improve the lives of Canadian families. These efforts included:

• Introducing legislation to protect children against sexual predators and crack down on child pornography.
• Introducing legislation to crack down on human smugglers who abuse the generosity of our immigration system.
• Introducing legislation that would end sentence discounts for multiple homicides, putting a stop to early parole for murderers.
• Introducing the Standing Up for Victims of White Collar Crime Act, which would impose tougher sentences on those convicted of fraud.
• Passing legislation that lengthens the time required before a person is eligible to apply for a pardon, including for those convicted of serious personal injury, including manslaughter, and child-related sexual offences.
• Introducing legislation that would further reform the pardons system by replacing pardons with a more restrictive “record suspension” and making those convicted of sexual offences against minors — or those convicted of three indictable offences — ineligible for a record suspension.
• Passing the Tackling Auto Theft and Property Crime bill to crack down on auto theft and trafficking of property that is obtained by crime.
• Prohibiting the sale of flavoured cigarettes and banning polycarbonate baby bottles that contain bisphenol A.
• Announcing plans to launch new, stronger messages for cigarette and cigar package labelling to encourage smokers to quit, as well as establishing a toll-free quitline.
• Passing the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act to help keep Canadians and their children safe from various types of hazardous consumer products, including cribs, jewellery and toys.
• Endorsing a joint framework with provinces and territories to curb childhood obesity, and setting joint goals to reduce Canadians’ sodium intake.
• Reducing the tax burden for families by introducing the Canada Child Tax Credit.
• Supporting self-employed workers by providing access to certain EI benefits.

Recently you received a mail out from me asking for your thoughts on what our Government’s priorities should be. I hope you’ll take the time to fill that out and let us know what’s important to you.



NEWS FROM OTTAWA
Harper Government to strengthen and enlarge health warnings on cigarette packages

The Harper Government announced it intends to launch updated, larger health warning messages and a toll-free quitline on cigarette and little cigar packages that will be the backbone of a social marketing campaign to encourage smokers to quit.  The announcement was made by the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health and Pierre Poilievre, Member of Parliament for Nepean-Carleton.

“The combination of larger health warning messages and social marketing will help the new messages reach as many smokers as possible,” said Minister Aglukkaq. “This comprehensive strategy will ensure Canada remains a world leader in tobacco control initiatives.”

“Giving Canadians the straight-up goods on the dangers of tobacco use in a more prominent and visible way through larger, more effective tobacco warning labels is a significant step in our ongoing battle to reduce tobacco consumption and, ultimately, cardiovascular disease,” said Irfhan Rawji, chair of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. “The Foundation commends the federal government for this important step in encouraging Canadians to be smoke-free and live healthier, longer lives.”

At a news conference today, Minister Aglukkaq unveiled five of the initial new, stronger messages and committed to a rotation of messages so that they avoid losing effectiveness over time.

“We applaud the Health Minister’s commitment to require tougher warning labels on tobacco products,” said Heather Borquez, President and CEO of the Canadian Lung Association. “Strong, graphic health warnings on cigarette packages are a key part of the broad effort needed to keep young people from smoking and encourage existing smokers to quit.”

Key features of the new label requirements include:

New, larger graphic health warnings that will feature new diseases and, for the first time, testimonials from individuals affected by tobacco use. The warnings will cover 75% of the front and back of cigarette and little cigar packages, up from the current 50%.

A pan-Canadian quitline and web URL. Provisional on provincial and territorial agreement, Health Canada intends to include on packages a pan-Canadian quitline number and web URL that would seamlessly connect smokers to provincial and territorial phone cessation support services.

Improved health information messages and toxic emission statements. The addition of colour and graphics to health information messages will make them more noticeable, while new toxic emission statements will be easier to understand.

In addition to the labelling changes, Health Canada is developing a social marketing campaign targeting smokers, including young adults. Multimedia, including social networks across the Web, will be used to reach teenagers and young adults.

The new health warning messages will build on the success of the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed At Youth Act. The Act, which became law in October 2009, makes it harder for industry to entice young people to smoke. The messages will also complement new and existing cessation and prevention initiatives, resulting in a fully comprehensive and integrated approach to tobacco control.

Tobacco use costs the Canadian health care systems $4.4 billion a year in direct costs and continues to kill 37,000 Canadians every year.