Government lacks tools for mass recalls: Aglukkaq

[CHIMO]

The federal health minister said outdated legislation makes it difficult for the government to deal quickly with recalls like Thursday's Fisher-Price recall of more than 10 million tricycles, toys and high chairs over safety concerns.

"As it is right now, we don't have the right tools to do massive recalls of this nature, which is what we've been saying for the last year, two years, that we need the tools to respond," Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told CBC's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon.

Aglukkaq said the government has been trying to push through new consumer protection legislation known as the Consumer Product Safety Act. The bill would give the government more power to take action against unsafe products and oblige industry to notify Health Canada when there is a recall or potentially dangerous product.

"We need a system in place where industry and consumers can report incidences of this nature, that we can investigate, and to prevent injuries," she said. "With this legislation, we will be able to have the necessary tools to respond quickly.
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/09/30/recall-products-health-minister.html

Thursday, September 30, 2010 | 7:05 PM ET

So the Cons have been sitting on this for more than four years and have accomplished nothing.

They don't even have any computer abilities to make it easy for Canadians to search their government site for recall items.

On Power & Politics today she essentially said that the new warnings for cigarettes is not a priority. Everything is in progress. Trust us. We have heard that before.