Okay.
Evidence of meeting #26 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gmo.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #26 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gmo.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
A voice
Okay.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
--and, second, who you accept when the niche market players say you're going to do unjust harm.
Okay. That's possibly true in the alfalfa industry, I'll maybe give that to you. But in other industries we've looked at it, because we have to look at the industry as a whole. We'd say, well, I guess we have to get rid of or sacrifice the niche in this case, because the viability announcement says to go ahead--
4:50 p.m.
A voice
Well, you can't--
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I look at it... If you want to control alfalfa seed in this country, the market will control it. And how the market controls it is by farmers saying: “You know what? Nobody wants to buy my seed that I grow if it's GM, so I'm not going to buy it”. That's how you control it. That's how it has been controlled to date. Is that not fair?
4:50 p.m.
President, Imperial Seed (1979) Ltd.
No, because it is yet to be released in Canada.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
It's gone through all the processes to be released. Why hasn't it been released? Because nobody in the market wants to buy it.
4:50 p.m.
President, Imperial Seed (1979) Ltd.
No.
No. It hasn't been released because it's taking time for it to go through the procedure. We were lucky enough that Alex's bill has came forth in this time.
We went to--
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Oh, I don't think you can take Alex's bill into this consideration.
4:50 p.m.
President, Imperial Seed (1979) Ltd.
We went to CFIA and we went to Biosafety. We went to all the committees to try to stop this and we got nothing, because we are only science-based--
4:50 p.m.
President, Imperial Seed (1979) Ltd.
By introducing another component of it, we might save markets.
4:50 p.m.
A voice
The problem is—
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Wait a minute. It's my time.
You had a problem with bacterial wilt going into Europe. Correct?
4:55 p.m.
President, Imperial Seed (1979) Ltd.
We did it through better farm practices. It had nothing to do with an improved GMO.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
It was done by the CFIA going to Europe and saying, “Based on science, this is not an issue”.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
So how do you say...? On the one hand, you say that based on science everything is safe, but based on market conditions, which we don't want to... For the beef industry, if you ask them, COOL is based on market conditions, not science. There are so many examples of non-tariff trade barriers based on market conditions, not science.
So how do I, as an exporting country that exports billions of dollars in food, say that based on science this is safe, and then go back into my country and say that based on market conditions I'm not going to allow it to happen? How do we do that and save face?
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Mr. Einarson, you said you would accept canola. You'd accept the three GM crops that are here right now. What about wheat?