Record of Proceedings

1. Discuss and provide advice on how to bring the ‘what’ and ‘how’ to monitor together, using Health Canada’s Evidence Review Cycle for Dietary Guidance (“ERC”) as an example.
2. Seek Committee members’ feedback on a short-term forward plan.

The meeting agenda was approved without changes.

The Co-Chairs reminded Members of Health Canada’s transparency approach for the Committee and the importance of declaring Members’ affiliations and interests before each meeting to help meet the Committee’s goal of providing the best independent advice. New affiliations and interests were noted.

• provided a brief overview of Health Canada’s decision-making framework the Evidence Review Cycle for Dietary Guidance (ERC); specifically: scientific basis, the Canadian context and the use of existing dietary guidance;
• presented data sources within the Canadian context input area by various data domains;
• described how the previous NSAC’s recommendations are already being implemented and what data sources to explore further.

Following a brief discussion to address issues of clarification, the Co-Chairs thanked the presenters and acknowledged the presentation provided valuable considerations for the Committee’s focused discussion to follow.

Building on the information presented by Health Canada, the Co-Chairs led a focussed discussion with the Committee to provide clear, concrete advice on how to bring the “what to monitor” and “how to be more responsive in monitoring” together, using Health Canada’s ERC as an example.

Advice was captured around three targeted themes:

• How can Canadians facing health inequities, or groups generally under-represented, be better reflected?
• Are there other elements that should be considered in the evidence base informing dietary guidance?
• How can different types of evidence (e.g., national level data and cohort studies) be better used and integrated into the evidence base informing dietary guidance?

Areas of discussion included involvement of people with lived and living experiences in framing questions; considering broader framing of Canadian context; leveraging heterogeneous and disaggregated data.

The Secretariat will seek input on potential dates for the next meeting.

The Co-Chairs thanked Members for their active participation.