This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session, which ended in August 2015.
Gerry Ritz Conservative
This bill has received Royal Assent and is now law.
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.
This enactment amends several Acts in order to implement various measures relating to agriculture.
It amends the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act to amend certain aspects of the plant breeders’ rights granted under that Act, including the duration and scope of those rights and conditions for the protection of those rights. It also provides for exceptions to the application of those rights.
It amends the Feeds Act, the Fertilizers Act, the Seeds Act, the Health of Animals Act and the Plant Protection Act to, among other things,
(a) authorize inspectors to order that certain unlawful imports be removed from Canada or destroyed;
(b) authorize the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to take into account information available from a review conducted by the government of a foreign state when he or she considers certain applications;
(c) authorize the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to issue certificates setting out any information that he or she considers necessary to facilitate certain exports; and
(d) require that a registration or a licence be obtained for conducting certain activities in respect of certain feeds, fertilizers or supplements that have been imported for sale or that are to be exported or to be sent or conveyed from one province to another.
It also amends the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act to, among other things, increase the maximum limits of penalties that may be imposed for certain violations.
It amends the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act to modernize the requirements of the advance payments program, improve its accessibility and enhance its administration and delivery.
Finally, it amends the Farm Debt Mediation Act to clarify the farm debt mediation process and to facilitate the participation of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in the mediation process when that Minister is a guarantor of a farmer’s debt.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
Mr. Speaker, yes, they woke up.
Another issue is raised in this bill, which is the financial ability of CFIA to monitor and enforce the regulations and the legislation that it is being given. I would like to give members an example from my riding of what I believe is a failure of CFIA.
We hear a lot of failures of CFIA in terms of the use of contaminated in meat in Canada. We have heard of some other failures of CFIA—
The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
Order, please. I know the day is getting on, but the Standing Orders do require that only one member at a time has the floor. There is a reason for that. It is so that other hon. members will have the opportunity to hear what the member who has been recognized has to say.
The hon. member for York South—Weston.
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
Mr. Speaker, I would like to mention a little organization called Aidan's Gluten Free, which is in my riding. It uses seeds and grains from all over Canada, and probably from all over North America. They are combined in a way that makes bread that is tasty but has no gluten in it. Aidan sells this product, which is assembled in his little factory, to grocery stores and they sell it to the public because it is fresh. This bread is baked fresh every day in his factory, and it is delicious.
However, the CFIA has allowed the big commercial operators like Sobeys, Loblaw and Metro to now bake bread in Chicago, freeze it and ship it to the stores in Toronto. They take the frozen bread, put a best before sticker on it, put it on the shelf and call it fresh. They leave the bread frozen maybe for weeks, maybe for months.The CFIA apparently thinks that this is an okay practice.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sharing my time, so I was going to continue right until—
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
Mr. Speaker, before I was interrupted, my point was that the CFIA does not have the resources to properly police material now and to properly keep things fair and honest in our system. We now have a system in which a bread manufacturer in the United States is allowed to ship frozen product into Canada, then have it labelled as fresh, put it on the store shelves and the CFIA says that it is okay. What I think is happening is that the CFIA is not paying attention. This is not a fair position to take.
We note that the biggest bread maker in Toronto was recently sold to a Mexican operation. We wonder if this is not the precursor. Instead of making the product in our own city, taking grain from the Prairies and from those farmers, grinding it into flower and baking bread in Toronto, we are going to start making the bread in Mexico, shipping it to Toronto and calling it fresh, even though it was frozen long ago.
That is the concern, but the CFIA does not seem to have the resources to manage even that operation—
The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
I would just let the hon. member for York South—Weston know that in fact, at the end of the intervention by the hon. member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, we actually surpassed the five hours after the first round of debate on this particular question, in which case there are only 10 minutes for speeches and thereafter five minutes for questions and comments. We have had a couple of interruptions, so I will let the hon. member have another minute to finish his remarks, and then we will go to questions.
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
Mr. Speaker, I actually have experience making genetically modified seeds the old fashioned way, by cross-pollination. Members may have heard of Funk's G hybrid. There are signs all over southwestern Ontario for Funk's G hybrid. As a youngster, for 90¢ an hour, I ran around pulling the tassels off two of the rows so the other 10 rows would be pollinated by themselves. It was an awful, back-breaking job, but 90¢ an hour was a lot of money in those days. That is what we did to make a grain that was capable of being a feed grain for the following season. It was a great system. I highly recommend farm work to anyone here.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me the extra time to continue to wrap it up.
The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
It would appear that we do have time for at least one question and response.
Questions and comments, the hon. member for Edmonton Centre.
Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague is from an urban riding, so I would just like to ask a question on behalf of all the farmers in Edmonton Centre, and I do not say that totally facetiously. There are actually farmers in Edmonton Centre, or certainly farmers' markets.
We heard a lot of interesting chat, and it was entertaining. I realize that I am throwing him a lob at midnight. Does the member have one specific amendment he would like to make to the bill to make it better?
