A/HRC/22/50/Add.1 discrimination.12 This is also recommended by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 12. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the growing gap between Canada’s international human rights commitments and their implementation domestically. The Government has affirmed that the Charter can be interpreted as guaranteeing the right to the means necessary for an adequate standard of living.13 For example, in its submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during its second periodic review, the Government averred that “[w]hile the guarantee of security of the person under section 7 of the Charter might not lead to a right to a certain type of social assistance, it ensured that persons were not deprived of the basic necessities of life.” 14 It is thus perplexing that when the issue arose before the courts, successive governments opposed interpretations of Charter provisions that would provide remedies to homelessness, hunger or other violations of the right to an adequate standard of living. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned that although the Continuing Committee of Officials on Human Rights (comprised of officials at the federal, provincial and territory levels) has been established to ensure follow-up of recommendations from the United Nations human rights mechanisms, such follow-up is in practice uneven (E/C.12/CAN/CO/4, E/C.12/CAN/CO/5, para. 12). B. The policy framework 13. A growing number of provinces are implementing or developing poverty reduction strategies, some of which have been enshrined in legislation, such as An Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion in Québec, the Poverty Reduction Act, 2009 in Ontario, or Manitoba’s 2011 Poverty Reduction Strategy Act. Provinces have taken steps to develop rural economies, encourage the production and consumption of local foods and adopt policies seeking to improve food security and promote healthy diets, including British Columbia’s Community Food Action Initiative, the Yukon’s Nutrition Framework, Alberta’s Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth, Manitoba’s Northern Healthy Foods Initiative, Ontario’s Student Nutrition Program and Nunavut’s Framework for Action on Nutrition. In addition, some provinces have adopted legislation to protect agricultural land from urban development, such as Québec, British Columbia and Ontario. These are all important steps toward ensuring the right to food. But no province has adopted a food strategy as such, combining different objectives in a holistic approach cutting across sectors. 14. Food policies are emerging at the municipal level. A large number of food policy councils have been formed across Canada, establishing a forum for dialogue among the diverse actors working on food issues, and working from a food systems perspective in an effort to integrate issues of food, agriculture, health, transportation, economy and social protection. The Special Rapporteur met representatives of the Toronto Food Policy Council, established in 1991 under the auspices of the Toronto Board of Health. The Food Policy Council, comprised of 30 members from the community, the Board of Health, the City Council, local farming communities and the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, advocates for innovative community food security programmes and works on various city initiatives concerned with food security. Such participatory models of food system management deserve support from the provincial, territorial and federal levels, in order to integrate them into a national level framework. 12 13 14 6 Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel, Promoting Equality: A New Vision (Ottawa: Department of Justice, 2000) at 105-112. E/1994/104/Add.17, para. 8. E/C.12/1993/SR.5, paras. 3 and 21.