Feds target junk food ads for kids

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This article was published 20/09/2018 (2664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Junk food advertising that’s geared to children will be banned by late 2020, thanks to a cross-party effort led by a Winnipeg MP.

Parliament passed Bill S-228 on Wednesday. Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson, who represents the Charleswood area, sponsored the bill, which was tabled by a Conservative senator before she retired.

Once the bill receives royal assent, which is expected this month, Health Canada has two years to put regulations into effect.

The department says it will determine whether ads are marketed toward children based on a billboard’s content, whether a Facebook ad uses animals or cartoons, or whether 15 per cent of a TV show’s audience is under age 13 (which accounts for 13 per cent of the population).

As for food that will be subject to the marketing ban, Health Canada plans to use the criteria for a package labelling, which will soon put a warning on food that is high in salt, sugar or saturated fats.

The processed-food industry has been lobbying for changes to the bill since it was tabled in 2016, arguing they follow voluntary standards. Proponents of the bill say those standards are lax.

The industry has warned that vague rules mean cheese and flavoured yogurt would be included. Health Canada’s list of products doesn’t clarify if that is the case.

The bill will require a review after five years, and Eyolfson said it was “much more nimble” to have Health Canada set the definitions.

“(If) we find there are any changes in the science, then we’d have to go through the trouble of going back to Parliament.”

Eyolfson hopes the bill prevents children from forming unhealthy habits, but he stressed: “this law does not tell people how to feed their kids.”

The bill originally applied to children under age 17, but a committee modified it to age 13, putting it on par with a decades-old law in Quebec.

Tory health critic Marilyn Gladu said there’s scant data to suggest that province has any less obesity than the rest of Canada.

“I am just not sure that it is going to work, though I am firmly behind its premise that we want to reduce obesity in children,” she told the Commons Monday. She also pushed for confirmation the bill won’t ban sports sponsorships.

Despite being launched by a Tory senator, just one of the party’s MPs ended up supporting it at the final House vote. Nevertheless, Eyolfson said the bill shows that opposition parties can work with the government on important topics.

“Public health should really be non-partisan, and I think this is a good example of that,” he said.

Public health experts have noticed some TV ads for children’s snacks are now directed at parents.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca