The Globe & Mail

Dr. Tom Warshawski and Manuel Arango are co-chairs of the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition.

On Nov. 12, 2015, newly minted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote a mandate letter to his new minister of health, Jane Philpott, outlining what he expected her to achieve.

The second of the many priorities he listed was, in part, “introducing new restrictions on the commercial marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children, similar to those now in place in Quebec.”

That was not achieved by that health minister, nor was it achieved by the following three federal health ministers who came and went. We now urgently need the current Health Minister, Mark Holland, to get the green light to move ahead. This issue has been committed to in four health-minister mandate letters, in the 2019 federal budget, and in the 2015 and 2021 Liberal election platforms. We believe there is parliamentary support to achieve this. Canadians also support it, with nearly seven in 10 in favour of restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to kids, a new poll from Pollara Strategic Insights (on behalf of the Heart and Stroke Foundation) found.

If long-promised regulations to limit the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children in Canada are not presented before the end of June (when the House rests for the summer), there is a very real risk they will not be enacted before the coming federal election, which is next year (if not before). This seemingly high-priority item on the mandate letter could remain unfulfilled for many more years to come.

We’ve been down this pre-election road before. In 2019, federal legislation to restrict the marketing of food and beverages was awaiting Senate approval. It was already being delayed by food and beverage industry lobbyists when the federal election was called that year, which meant the industry was successful in having the legislation killed. We’ve been waiting for its revival ever since, and the industry is still working to try to delay it.

Meanwhile, children who were aged 6 or 7 when the commitment was made in 2015 have endured nine years of unrelenting exposure to junk-food marketing during their most influential years. For many, this advertising will have already played a big role in setting some bad dietary habits for life, and the negative health consequences that result.

Others who were teenagers back in the summer of 2015 are now in their 20s, and some may already have children of their own. Without prompt government action, parents with young kids will continue to face the challenges of seeing their children deluged with the same marketing for unhealthy food and beverages that they experienced.

The concept is simple: enact federal rules that limit the marketing of junk food to impressionable youngsters. This marketing has many traditional facets, from ads on television to enticing outdoor billboards, to in-store and restaurant displays. But now, there is an even greater onslaught of ads on social media under the guise of fun videos, games and contests, often using lovable, fun and seemingly harmless cartoon characters and other tactics to target children. They all have one real purpose – to get our kids hooked on foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, or all three.

This marketing exists because it works – driving our kids to pester their parents into buying the unhealthy items that are made so attractive to them, or even spending whatever little money they have of their own. Ultraprocessed foods, which are the bulk of products marketed to children, make up 60 per cent of the diets of Canadian children aged nine to 13. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, “Diets high in ultraprocessed foods, including sugary drinks, are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, cancers, tooth decay and mortality later in life. In 2019 alone, dietary risk factors contributed to 36,000 deaths in Canada.”

The Prime Minister has made good progress on the other elements of his Healthy Eating Strategy, including updating Canada’s Food Guide, front-of-package nutrition labelling, the banning of trans fats in all foods sold in Canada, and the newly announced $1-billion national school nutrition program. But the centrepiece of the plan – restrictions for marketing to children – remains incomplete. We’re asking Mr. Trudeau to not renege on his good promise from nine years ago, and to protect children from becoming the targets of manipulative junk-food marketing.

The federal government must stay the course and finally fulfill its promise to stop junk-food marketers from targeting children and must release draft regulations before the end of June. They must not let the influential junk-food lobby block them yet again from doing the right thing for our kids.

We’ve waited far too long and can’t afford to wait for another generation to grow up without such action.

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