Merci, monsieur le président.
This is one of the issues that was raised by the representative of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency during testimony before the committee last week. The CFIA is responsible for implementing the labelling regulations. Obviously, certain aspects of the labelling regulations are highly technical.
What criteria must be met for a product to be labelled as being Canadian? Well, where the processing occurs is important, and 51% of the cost related to processing must be assumed by Canadian processors. These regulations relate more to the economic considerations of processing than they do to product origin. Product origin is covered by another regulation, and labelling to that effect is either voluntary or mandatory. That is the context in which we operate.
While the Agriculture Policy Framework was being developed, one of the questions that was raised time and time again was whether Canadian consumers were able to recognize a product as being made in Canada. This is important as consumers are perhaps more likely to buy Canadian products. When it comes to Canadian products, there is the whole issue of branding, and being able to recognize "Made in Canada" products. It is one of the aspects of the policy framework that we are in the process of reviewing in order to facilitate recognition of Canadian products. It is unrelated to the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, which entails a different set of regulations.