Agriculture committee  The guidance that is included in the Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising is subject to consultation. Whenever we do propose amendments to the guide, there is a consultation process, so we have a transparent process, and the guide is published and available on our website. As

Agriculture committee  As has been indicated earlier, we do actively enforce the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act and regulations on the basis of guidelines, so continuing to do that in this scenario is indeed possible. As Mr. Mayers has pointed out, it is also possible to move ahead with the regul

Agriculture committee  In general, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency does not register or approve labels. We respond to requests from industry and consumers on what labelling requirements are, which are reflected on those labels. We do, however, under our trade and commerce legislation, have two sc

Agriculture committee  I believe that during our last appearance before the committee we had indicated that within CFIA we use the Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising as our interpretive guideline document for a core provision in the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, which does state that claim

Agriculture committee  The current guidance is under our Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising. Changes to that guide would not require a change to legislation or regulation. However, we wouldn't want to preclude any result from a consultation and its outcome as to what the most appropriate tool to i

Agriculture committee  The guidance does not instruct industry on what to say. It indicates that if a certain statement is made, it should be truthful and not misleading and should provide some guidance.

Agriculture committee  The legislation itself just indicates the prohibition of false and misleading claims. What the guidance does is identify certain statements that are commonly made by industry and identify what our current policy would indicate to be a statement that would be compliant with that i

Agriculture committee  That was since the summer of 2007.

Agriculture committee  It's about six months.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  As I indicated earlier, the guidance that relates to “Product of Canada” labelling has been in place since the 1980s. Being as young as I am, of course, I wasn't involved in the consultation at the time, but—

Agriculture committee  No. However, I was going to indicate that the Competition Bureau may have more of the history on that.

Agriculture committee  When guidance was established, it would have been subject to extensive consultation. Certainly as government officials, we do not draw our own opinions or conclusions on that. As we enter into consultation on the issue, we are certain we will hear a lot from Canadians on that iss

Agriculture committee  As was indicated in the action plan, the concerns and expectations of Canadians were noted, and the government did commit to a review of “Product of Canada” labelling provisions as it related to food. Certainly these types of considerations would be taken into account in review o

Agriculture committee  We have statistics on recent correspondence we have received that relates to consumer concerns regarding “Product of Canada” claims, yes.