Agriculture committee  I think that involves consultation with industry and the broad public, and with others who are stakeholders and have an interest in the area. Certainly if a government is going to make that kind of a change, they need to have the confidence of the public in doing so. It needs to

Agriculture committee  Again, Rick White may want to comment on it, but in answer to that, I would say that by and large we're very pleased with the regulatory process that applies in Canada. It's science-based, it's reliable, and it's timely. I think there will always be people who would like to see a

Agriculture committee  We support an environment where there's room for the various different processes, so you have GM, you have GM-free, you have organic, and an environment where all those things are possible. I would echo what Stephen said in terms of the need to move away in all these categories

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. In the regulation of genetically modified materials worldwide—Canada, the European Community, all countries—there are already regulatory procedures in place, and they tend to be zero-tolerance processes. Canada has a regulatory process for the safety

Agriculture committee  Rick White may want to say more about this, but in the canola sector we feel we do market access assessments ourselves, as an industry. The seed developers bring the product along, and producers have a strong voice in what technology is introduced and commercialized in Canada. We

Agriculture committee  Certainly any new GM trait that comes forward goes through a very rigorous process, so it's not automatic that a new GM trait coming would be introduced into the canola sector without any complication from a safety point of view; it has to go through a very rigorous process. The

Agriculture committee  I don't know of any specific circumstances where that kind of procedure is in place. I believe that in Canada, industry has dealt with this issue fairly effectively. Industries such as the soybean industry, which has both GM and non-GM product, have been able to look at markets a

Agriculture committee  The important thing, speaking from the Canola Council's point of view, is to look at where everything goes in Growing Forward 2. We're coming to the end of Growing Forward 1 and that whole framework, and there are consultations going on, about where we go from there in terms of G

Agriculture committee  Since then, public and private research has been applied continually to improve canola value. This research includes traditional science and biotechnology, including genetic modification. The combination of these methodologies and a relentless focus on innovation is creating prof

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to the committee for having the Canola Council here today. Biotechnology is a very important part of innovation in Canadian agriculture. We congratulate the committee for taking on this study and encourage you to make recommendat