As the Nov. 23 voting day approached for a House of Commons motion that would limit trans fatty acids in Canadian food, agriculture committee chair Paul Steckle was in a quandary.
It was an NDP motion, proposed by Winnipeg MP Pat Martin, that the leadership of his Liberal government had embraced and planned to support.
It was a health issue he understood, since Martin had made the point that trans fats cause heart disease, obesity, strokes and diabetes that kill 1,000 Canadians annually.
Trans fats are created when vegetable oils are treated to give them longer shelf life and are a staple in many fast and processed foods.
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Yet Steckle was troubled by the prospect of supporting yet another federal regulation that interferes with freedom of choice, a decision that could have an impact on the food industry.
“I think we’re committing to something we likely cannot and will not do,” he said in a later interview.
“As a government we should not do that. It has implications for the agriculture and the food processing industries as well. We have industries out there like canola where we look at trans fats in the product and we cannot do anything to undermine them.”
Steckle at first planned to vote for the motion but then changed his mind and became one of three Liberals to side with most Conservatives in a vote that decided 193-73 to tell the government that within a year, it must develop regulations or legislation that will reduce use of trans fats to the lowest level possible.
Martin called trans fats poisons and said there are alternatives, including new canola varieties that could be a financial boon for producers.
He told the House a ban on trans fats could be good news for natural oils and fats, including dairy.
“Oilseed producers in Western Canada may have an increased market for their product, which is pure canola oil,” said the Winnipeg MP.
The damage is done to canola and other vegetable oils when they are hydrogenated for stability and shelf life of the oils and the products containing them.
Winnipeg Conservative and party health critic Steven Fletcher broke with the majority of his caucus to support the motion.
“At the end of the day, if we need to make a choice between the shelf life of people versus the shelf life of doughnuts, the Conservative Party of Canada will always support the shelf life of people,” he said.
Most of his caucus colleagues decided that was not the question and opposed the motion.
