Evidence of meeting #25 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
As we've gone to GM varieties we've also seen segregation in the canola industry, as Mr. Gowland talked about, for example, Nextar and IMC Canola. So there is the possibility of segregation of the product at the present time. Is that correct?
President, Canola Council of Canada
Yes, but that's not on the basis of GM. That's just on the basis of quality characteristics that are not GM.
It would be extremely difficult in Canada to segregate on the basis of GM. We have our market access policy that says approvals in these countries are required, so we don't face trade issues.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
We've set up a system to handle that.
Now let's look back. We had problems with Europe accepting GM, but we still proceeded. We still increased our acreage and yields. Now we see Europe starting to accept different varieties of GMO canola. If this legislation were to come forward, would Europe not accepting GMO from day one risk the industry not even happening at all?
President, Canola Council of Canada
I have no doubt that the European system would work the same way as the Canadian system. We have GM canola approved in Europe, and it took us a while. But we would get the approvals.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
But Mr. Atamanenko is proposing we do a market analysis. If we had done the market analysis in 1995 or 1996, we probably would have said, “Oh, we can't risk the European market.” In reality we did risk the European market, but we gained so many other markets in its place that the net benefit far outweighed the cost. If we had done the process Alex is proposing in 1994, 1995, and 1996, we probably wouldn't have GMO canola.
President, Canola Council of Canada
That's right. It was interesting, because there was quite a debate about whether or not we would require market access to Europe. We determined that their regulatory system wasn't functioning. So that was a decision the industry members made together at the table.
I'm not sure if the government could make that decision for us, because of the economics of industry, the information that won't be shared with government about access, and those types of things.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
So if this legislation were to go forward, would it not put at risk those new varieties we have on the shelf and the investment we have in the industry?
President, Canola Council of Canada
Yes, I believe that. Frankly, part of our 2015 initiative to get to 15 million tonnes is based on the fact that we need to continue to get investment in seed development in Canada. The companies compete internationally with corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton, and we need to make sure the R and D dollars are coming to canola. If they look at delays and uncertainty in getting regulatory approval in Canada, we're going to lose R and D dollars in Canada.
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Let's take it back to the farm gate. If we didn't have canola, would we have as many farmers farming today? The reality, as Mr. White said in his presentation, is if it wasn't for canola, a lot of guys would be out of business. Is that not fair to say?
President, Canola Council of Canada
It's been number one in farm cash receipts for the past four years. Canola is making growers money.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Thank you.
I apologize. We're out of time. A number of us have previous commitments, or we would extend it.
Thank you for coming here, even though our time was shortened. It will be up to the committee, but because it was short, you may be called back again. We'll see.
Thanks very much for participating in this.
The meeting is adjourned until Monday.