Sonia Parmar is Vice President of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs at the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), which represents over 1,200 members across the natural, organic, and wellness sectors in Canada. With a career rooted in government advocacy, Sonia is responsible for ensuring that the voices of manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers are heard in Ottawa, especially as Health Canada advances sweeping regulatory changes that could impact the industry. Her expertise lies in navigating legislative processes, interpreting complex regulations, and defending the interests of an entire sector against policies that threaten affordability, innovation, and access to natural health products.

In this interview, Sonia explains how CHFA has challenged Health Canada’s claims that natural health products present widespread risks, revealing how adverse event data is often exaggerated or misrepresented. She details CHFA’s engagement with independent pharmacovigilance experts, whose analysis confirmed that these products are overwhelmingly safe and beneficial. Sonia discusses how Health Canada has historically used adverse reaction databases in ways that mislead parliamentarians, resulting in unnecessary restrictions, rising costs, and fewer products on the market. She highlights the real-world impact: increased costs for small businesses, loss of product diversity, and consumers turning to unregulated foreign markets or counterfeit online products. Sonia stresses the importance of Canada’s local health food stores as trusted information hubs and warns that overregulation risks collapsing this ecosystem. Her call to Ottawa is clear—engage meaningfully with stakeholders, focus on fair regulation, and stop policies that undermine Canadians’ access to safe, natural options.