Stephanie Drummond

11/30/2024

Thank you everyone who emailed the committee and their MPs!! Bill C-368 has passed through the Standing Committee of Health and is moving on to 3rd reading!! 👏🏼 🤩👏🏼

11/26/2024

We have just 48 hours to influence change!

The Standing Committee of Health meets this Thursday!!
Visit the NHPPA website to send your email!!

This is a critical moment to ensure MPs know Canadians demand better. The committee meets on Thursday, November 28th at 3:30 pm ET, so we need to flood their inboxes and voicemails now.

Bill C-368 was introduced to reverse harmful changes in the 2023 Budget Bill that moved natural health products (NHPs) into the therapeutic product category. These changes subjected NHPs to excessive penalties, unreasonable regulations, and even five million-dollar-a-day fines intended for large pharmaceutical companies.
Now, the Standing Committee on Health is reviewing six proposed amendments to Bill C-368 that threaten to undermine its purpose. Among them, Amendment NDP-1 is the most damaging, effectively gutting the bill and leaving NHPs vulnerable to the same overreach. Other amendments include proposals to impose excessive fines, classify benign products like chamomile tea as dangerous, and grant Health Canada powers to recall NHPs without court supervision.

11/24/2024

On November 21, 2024, NDP Health Critic Peter Julian introduced an amendment to Bill C-368 that threatens to undo the progress we’ve made to protect natural health products (NHPs).

This amendment, if accepted, would render the Bill meaningless and leave NHPs under the extensive—and unreasonable—powers of the “therapeutic product” category.

Bill C-368 was designed to reverse changes made in 2023, which placed NHPs under the therapeutic product category of the Food and Drugs Act. These changes subjected NHP companies and practitioners to excessive regulatory oversight, including penalties like fines of up to $5 million per day. For over 15 years, Canadians have fought to ensure NHPs remain outside this category, and Bill C-368 reflects your commitment to fair and balanced regulation.

However, Peter Julian’s amendment only exempts NHPs from a handful of provisions—four of which already do not apply to NHPs. This means that all but one of the harmful provisions, including steep fines and increased Health Canada powers, would remain. It’s a political maneuver designed to appear as compromise, but delivers no meaningful protection for NHPs.

We need your voice now to stop this amendment and protect the integrity of Bill C-368.

Link to contact the Standing Committee of Health will be in the comments. Please share!!

10/28/2024

Good evening everyone!
A little about what we’ve been up to lately! Earlier this year we hosted a Town Hall Meeting at the Lions Hall to bring awareness to what our current federal government was trying to put in place through the budget bill in 2023 on Natural Health Products. We had our areas MP Scott Reid and curator of Bill C-368 Blaine Caulkins, which is to amend the unnecessary regulations on our Natural Health Products, which in Canada already have the strictest standards in the world.
I then went one step further and was a delegate at our Perth town council COW meeting to ask them to support Bill C-368, which was voted in favour by 6-1!
I am now going to use this page to post updates regarding the bill, it is now in the hands of the Standing Committee of Health and will go through several meetings until it can go to 3rd reading in the House of Commons.
There’s a lot we can do to make sure this bill passes!! I know many people including myself who have needed NHPs to improve their quality of health and wellness! Together we can do this!!
Here is a Substack article to get us going!

Health Committee hearings have begun - what can you do?

07/01/2024

Happy 🇨🇦 Day!!

10/25/2022

Well, it was a good race!
I am so grateful, humbled and honoured to have had so much support from my hometown ♥️ (563 votes, apparently is impressive for a newcomer!)
Congratulations to Judy!! 🎉
And all the best to John!!

10/24/2022

Voting is at 40.5%!!
3 hours left 🗳

10/24/2022

Good morning fellow Perth residents!! Today is the last day to vote until 8 PM this evening. The voters helpdesk at Townhall will be open from 8:30 AM till 8 PM tonight.
Here is the fifth and final predetermined question and my answer, we never got the audience questions, however The Table had sent us some great questions and have them posted on their page. 

The Perth strategic plan for 2022 to 2026 proposes an increase in population to 10,500. What impact do you feel this population increase will have on climate change in Perth and the neighbouring areas? How would you propose to mitigate the effects of climate change while increasing the towns population?

With the projected population increase of approximately 4000 people by 2026 I feel this increase mostly affect the amount of vehicles on our streets and roads along with the potential of removing forest areas to build new homes. I would propose to mitigate these effects by pledging to plant X amount of trees each year which is similar yet different to the plant three for one rule we currently have. I believe bringing in public transit, creating walking and bike paths, making sure proper planning and development policies are in place such as allowing off grid housing. I would ensure that developers have green space incorporated in their plans along with energy efficient homes. We would also look at promoting food cyclers, which is a countertop unit that gives you soil through composting of your food. It’s all the little things that each of us can do that will add up to some thing huge. Another thing we would look at is the possibility of a rotating work from home for town staff and where applicable other businesses in and around town. We will also look at logically replacing town tools to be electric or battery operated such as lawnmowers chainsaws or whipper snipper‘s. Another way to reduce our carbon footprint is to install more water filling stations, promote more walking, and we do that by making our many dangerous intersection safer, create more walking paths and especially getting the transports off our downtown streets. I also believe that lowering the speed limits for some of our streets and neighborhoods would also help make it safer for walking. 

10/21/2022

Question #4
It is clear that Perth’s healthcare facilities, especially the Perth Hospital, as well as its doctors and nurses are overwhelmed due in part to staff shortages and underfunding. The provinces approach involves privatizing many of our healthcare services. What role should Perth Council play in rectifying Perths healthcare shortfalls? What would you propose to improve access to healthcare in Perth?

With being constrained by provincial funding and rules to truly tackle the heart of the issue, as a municipality there is still so much we can do. We would work with the hospital on funding campaigns and maintain or if possible increase our existing contributions. Also with our town having a seat on the hospital board I would ensure that priorities set by the board speak to the needs of our community. With healthcare being the largest employer in this area, we as a municipality would set priorities on maintaining and creating amenities and supporting services such as daycare and recreation. This will assist in retaining and  attracting healthcare workers. As well with a seat on Lanark County Council I would lobby hard to the provincial government to quickly rectify the issues causing this healthcare crisis in order to avoid privatizing services. It is worthy to note that bringing in public transit within town as well as collaborating with neighbouring towns to make transportation a non-issue to get to appointments would be extremely beneficial.
I would also bring forth a motion of opening a walk-in clinic such as Appletree Telemedicine Clinic. (Appletreemedicalgroup.com)

10/16/2022

With the projected population growth of about 4000 by 2026, it’s imperative right now to be approaching/inviting another grocery store to come to town.
I would love to see a FreshCo or Food Basics on the east end of town!
What are your thoughts?!

Edit: The east end of town according to the street directions is technically south… maybe something to consider when it’s time to replace street signs?

10/15/2022

Predetermined question # 3
Adjacent towns have plans and have effected actions to partially ameliorate affordable housing for their populations. (Eg Smiths Falls and Almonte) Given the lengthy waiting list for subsidized housing in Perth (which currently has no plans to build or convert buildings for affordable housing) how would you address this?

With the Mayor position comes a seat on Lanark County Council. First I would look at it from that angle and see what the county can do on everyone’s behalf to avoid using the town’s resources and us having to recreate the wheel. I would want to have a better understanding of their requirements and standards to have a better idea of what Perth can do within those parameters and to see how creative we can get to speed up the process of shortening the wait list. (I’ve been on that list when my 23 year old daughter was a toddler, I understand the frustration)
I would also support the development of Cooperative Housing, Habitat for Humanity and other like initiatives. I would work with planning and development to update their policies to allow Co Housing in town. I would also hire a consultant to develop Co Housing for urban municipalities and advocate for strategic priorities at the County level.
The Federal government has allocated 500 million dollars in Cooperative Housing development program as well as 1 billion over 30 years to build affordable housing. As a municipality we will tap into those available funds via the Canadian Housing Federation and the Cooperative Housing Association of Ontario.

10/12/2022

In case you missed In Focus today!

It's the candidates in Perth's turn to join us for a Mayoral Candidates Round table. John Fenik, Judy Brown an...