Industry committee  —in ISED. What's interesting is that in 2010 the Netherlands—I know you asked about them previously—transferred their ministry of agriculture into their ministry of economic affairs.

Industry committee  If you can make that happen, that would be fantastic.

Industry committee  Right now with the regulations, according to Health Canada, it would take at current levels and current pace 20 years to modernize their existing regulations, by which time they will already be out of date. The issue here is that when you have industry trying to introduce new ingredients, new products, and new manufacturing processes, these things take so long to get approval in Canada.

Industry committee  I think there's just been a backlog, and I don't think regulations are exciting, but they are a huge barrier to innovation and growth for our industry. They cause a lot of frustration. I would say it's the lack of resources.

Industry committee  It's not only the existing regulations, like that 20 years for the existing regulations to be modernized. The sciences back this up. The science is there, and everyone agrees that they have to be modernized, but it's all of the new regulations as well.

Industry committee  So how is the department going to handle that?

Industry committee  That's right.

Industry committee  That may be.

Industry committee  The North American market is definitely important for our member companies. Concerning how products are treated differently between the Canada-U.S. border and the Canada-Mexican border—

Industry committee  I probably don't have much more to add than what the CFIA said, but I do know that the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council is working on this comparability to help with the facilitation, what we call “the thinning of the border”, and to help the free flow of these products, but going both ways.

Industry committee  Just quickly, that is definitely important for our member companies—long-term, permanent, consistent, predictable. We need to have a vision on how they are going to be doing their investments, so it has been a real help.

Industry committee  If you look at the overall scale of things in Canada, there is not a lot of collaboration in those sectors. That's one reason why, for example, in the Netherlands, they've done very well as you see that collaboration with industry, government, and universities or colleges. There are specific examples in which the collaboration works very well, but overall I think that a lot of work needs to be done in that area.

Industry committee  I've relied on the statistics that I read from both CAPI and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, so I don't have the most current against the last year or two—

Industry committee  Thank you. On behalf of Food and Consumer Products of Canada, FCPC, and the member companies we represent, I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology for undertaking a study on Canadian manufacturing. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the important role of the food and consumer products industry to Canada's manufacturing sector and its future.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. It's interesting how it does come back to regulations. What we hear time and again from our member companies is that they are developing innovative products. Do I know what they are? Are they on product shelves? No, they are not, because these innovative products are not being approved in a timely way by Health Canada.