Information and privacy notice for healthy eating strategy initiatives

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• No Confidentiality
• Privacy Notice

The following notice explains how Health Canada will handle information from meetings and correspondence with stakeholders related to healthy eating initiatives.

Canada's commitment to open government is part of the federal government's efforts to foster greater openness and transparency to provide Canadians with more opportunities to learn about and participate in government and, at the same time, create a more efficient and responsive government.

As part of this commitment, Health Canada is committed to openness and transparency and evidence-based decision making. Health Canada is making more information available to Canadians than ever before and Canadians are being offered more opportunities to participate in discussions on government policies and priorities.

Consultation activities on Health Canada's healthy eating strategy have been designed to promote the involvement of, and consider the views and perspectives of, a wide variety of participants who are interested in or affected by Health Canada's healthy eating initiatives. This includes but is not limited to: citizens, industry, non-governmental organizations, professionals, academia, and professional associations.

In line with this commitment, Health Canada invites all stakeholders to provide written submissions in response to formal consultations that will be summarized in reports, such as Summary of Comments and What we Heard Report, which are made publically available.

A written submission is defined as electronic or mailed correspondence that represents a formal response to a proposed healthy eating policy, as outlined in a consultation document. Examples of a consultation document include: a discussion paper, an online questionnaire and a data call letter.

A formal consultation is defined as a process where Health Canada invites Canadians and stakeholders to comment on new or potential changes to its policies, regulations or guidance and for which there is a defined start and end date for receiving feedback.

Please be advised that Health Canada will also publish a table of all correspondence, other than the written submissions to a formal consultation, and all meetings with stakeholders in which views, opinions and information (including requests for information) are relayed with the intent to inform the development of policies, guidance or regulations related to healthy eating initiatives.

The table will include the date, subject and purpose of the disclosed meetings and correspondence. The title of any document provided during meetings will also be published. The documents listed in the table will be accessible to members of the public upon request, for the sole purpose of ensuring greater transparency. The disclosures made as part of this new policy are not part of the consultation process. Health Canada is therefore not seeking any feedback on any of these documents.

Oral or written communication for the purposes of making simple enquiries or requests for information and that do not have any relevance to the development of policies related to healthy eating, in Health Canada's view, will not be published.

The healthy eating initiatives covered by this policy include:

• Front of Package labelling
• Elimination of industrially produced trans fat
• Sodium reduction
• Marketing to kids
• Revision of Canada's Food Guide

Personal information will be treated in accordance with the Privacy Act.

For the purpose of this policy, stakeholders are defined as groups, industry, external organizations or advocates to the Government of Canada who have a specific interest in, have some influence on, or are affected by, a given policy, program, regulatory initiative of Health Canada. The definition excludes individuals representing themselves, including experts, other levels of government and foreign governments.

No Confidentiality

Information, views and opinions intended to inform the development of policies related to healthy eating beyond what is part of a written submission to a formal consultation, will not be treated confidentially by Health Canada. Health Canada will not accept correspondence or documents marked as confidential in this context.

Meeting notes or documents provided to Health Canada may be released, including in the context of requests under the Access to Information Act.

Privacy Notice

The personal information you provide to Health Canada is collected pursuant to section 4 of the Department of Health Act and is governed in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Purpose of collection: Personal information is used for stakeholder communications related the Food Safety and Nutrition Program.

Other uses or disclosures: Your personal information may be made publicly available, including on Canada.ca. In limited and specific situations, your personal information may be disclosed without your consent in accordance with subsection 8(2) of the Privacy Act.

For more information: This personal information collection is described in Info Source, available online at infosource.gc.ca. Refer to the standard personal information banks on Outreach Activities PSU 938 and Public Communications PSU 914.

Your rights under the Privacy Act: In addition to protecting your personal information, the Privacy Act gives you the right to request access to and correction of your personal information. For more information about these rights, or about our privacy practices, please contact Health Canada's Privacy Coordinator at 613-948-1219 or privacy-vie.privee@hc-sc.gc.ca. You also have the right to file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if you think your personal information has been handled improperly.

For more information on Health Canada's enhanced approach to openness and transparency please consult Transparency of stakeholder communications for healthy eating initiatives.