Agriculture committee  The action plan has already talked about getting more accurate information out to consumers, so presumably Health Canada is supposed to be already moving in that direction. There are ways of doing this cooperatively with the private sector. When they brought in new textile labelling in the U.S., which the manufacturers wanted, the Federal Trade Commission down there said, “You have to explain this to consumers.

Agriculture committee  As long as it means what it says, I don't think consumers would differentiate between the three terms. The issue is whether it is exactly what it says it is, and “Product of Canada” right now is usually not what a consumer believes to be a product of Canada. I agree with the harmonization of the standards and the levels all across the country, but I would hope that we would harmonize up to the federal standard so that everything's at the highest possible level.

Agriculture committee  Good morning. The Consumer Interest Alliance Inc. would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear today and make some suggestions regarding the “Product of Canada” label and in particular its use on food products. CIAI is an emerging organization of experienced consumer volunteers who are concerned with consumer issues and interests.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  It is maybe even fewer than that.

Agriculture committee  As a consumer rep, the first thing I tend to do when I go places is go into grocery stores and check prices. Certainly in the U.S. I think some of the prices are lower. Some figures came out recently that actually said some countries in Europe--and the one that surprised me was the U.K.

Agriculture committee  I'm not sure if we can go backwards. The Competition Bureau, in my mind, has not managed to do what it was put in place to do. Not only do we have a few small companies, but they're vertically integrated; the same people who own the grocery store own the distribution system and the wholesale warehouses and the processors.

Agriculture committee  The Dairy Farmers of Canada actually contracted us last year to do focus groups with consumers to find out what they knew about and how they felt about compositional standards for cheese. That of course involved doing a lot of basic research ourselves. We were absolutely horrified to find that most of the cheese currently on Canadian shelves is not actually cheese, according the standards that fall under the Food and Drugs Act.

Agriculture committee  Again it's a systemic problem. There is no way to move these innovative products from small producers through the system and into the grocery stores. You have to pay a fortune to get a new product into a decent spot in a grocery store. The so-called organic or healthy stuff that the big grocery chains are labelling are all based on their own systems.

Agriculture committee  I'd just like to respond. I don't disagree with anything you've said whatsoever. It's just that the way the marketplace is set up in Canada right now, there really isn't anything we can do except try to work through genuine value chains and through small stores. The vertical integration in the market chain between the producers and the consumers is such that....

Agriculture committee  We try to work cooperatively with the producers whenever we can. We don't always agree on everything. We have an agreement to disagree on issues around some of the marketing systems and supply management. But in a lot of the other areas, we try to work with farmers. In Manitoba, I sit on the farm stewardship board that does environmental farm plans and on the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, which gives out the ACAAF funding in Manitoba, both of which require a representative of a consumer organization.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Bezan. My name is Jennifer Hillard, and I'm the research director for the Consumer Interest Alliance, which is actually a fancy title for a volunteer job with a lot of work. I have another member with me, Florence Watson, who is also from Winnipeg. I'd really like to thank all the members for coming to our wonderful province and letting us present to you without having to travel to Ottawa.