Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, June 20, 2022 -

Health Canada’s regulation of natural health products needs to improve, according to a unanimous report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (the Committee) presented today by John Williamson, Chair of the Committee.

The Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development released an audit in 2021 that focused on whether Health Canada ensured that natural health products available for sale in Canada are safe and accurately represented to consumers. The Commissioner found that Health Canada:

• did not always verify that manufacturing facilities followed good manufacturing practices before natural health products were marketed for sale in Canada,

• left natural health products unchecked after they entered the market and was not always successful in responding to serious problems, and

• did not sufficiently monitor whether natural health products label information and advertisements met the product-licence conditions.

The audit did find that Health Canada responded effectively to natural health products related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of its report on this audit, the Committee has made six recommendations to Health Canada to address these matters regarding the regulation and safety of natural health products.