Thank you.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, my name is Derek Nighbor. I'm a senior vice-president with Food and Consumer Products of Canada. I welcome the opportunity to be here today.
We are the largest national industry association representing Canada's leading food, beverage, and consumer products companies, which manufacture or distribute the household products that sustain Canadians and enhance their quality of life. We represent roughly 75% to 80% of what you would see in your local grocery store as products on the shelves.
From an employment perspective, our industry provides high-paying jobs to approximately 300,000 Canadians in both rural and urban areas in every region of Canada. We are in fact now the top employer in manufacturing in Canada, with a great potential to be even bigger and better.
Today l'II provide an overview of our industry's priorities, followed by a few key challenges and suggestions and maybe some ideas for future committee discussion on how the federal government can help our sector grow in Canada.
Here is a quick industry overview.
Our industry is proud that Canadians enjoy some of the safest food and beverage products in the world. I think this is something we often take for granted, given our large land mass and the high level of safety that we have at top of mind in our industry. We work closely with government to maintain Canada's global reputation as having a world-leading food safety system. This is great for export potential, and product safety is and will remain the number one priority for our member companies. We support a predictable and transparent regulatory system that is based on sound science. We believe this is absolutely essential for consumers to have confidence in the products they buy and for our businesses to successfully operate and grow.
I want to talk about consumer education, because Canadians are increasingly interested in learning more about the food and beverages they are consuming and want to take greater control over their health through their diet and the products they choose. To help consumers make informed product choices, FCPC and our member companies have made great strides in promoting nutritional literacy among Canadians. Since 2005, for example, we've provided the government-regulated nutrition facts table on processed product packages. Just last year, we worked very closely with Health Canada to implement revamped allergen labelling on our packages. Our industry did not look for exemptions on allergen regs. We did the right thing and supported those who could have severe allergic reactions from foods or beverages that they consume.
Another thing we're very proud of is that in order to help consumers better understand the nutrition facts table, we partnered with Health Canada and a number of retailers across the country to launch a collaborative campaign called the Nutrition Facts Education Campaign. The purpose of that campaign was to help Canadians better use and understand the nutrition facts table, especially the per cent daily value portion of that table.
We had 34 companies and Health Canada, with a number of retailers promoting in-store. The table helps give Canadians the tools to make informed food choices for themselves and their families. Early results from that campaign, which is three years in now, have been quite positive, showing that 52% of Canadians who have seen the campaign and the campaign logo say that it has changed the way they shop for groceries.
On product choice I want to talk about the options in the grocery store and the innovation happening in industry. We have made great strides in developing new, innovative products in response to consumer demand—foods with lower sodium and lower fat levels, with trans-fats eliminated, and vitamins and minerals added. As Canadian consumers increasingly search for a wide variety of nutritional choices, it's important that we meet their expectations and help them manage their health through diet. A recent FCPC survey of our member companies showed that 92% have responded to changing consumer needs by launching new, innovative products or making reformulation changes to existing products. If we think of the grocery store today compared with that of ten years ago, we can see the real difference that is happening in our communities.
I'm going to move to plant operations briefly to talk about water conservation. This is another area in which our beverage members have done a lot of work, making a lot of investments in the plant to reuse water, to reduce water usage, and overall to be more environmentally responsible. Another survey we did with our member companies showed that more than 90% of our member companies have made water reduction a priority in the production process, and half have identified industry initiatives to reduce consumption within their office or plant operations. Juxtaposed against international benchmarks, we're seeing that Canadian companies may in fact be pulling ahead of their global peers in this space.
That's the good stuff. I want to talk a little bit about some of the challenges we're facing.
Regulatory barriers continue to be a challenge, although I'll acknowledge a lot of the work that Health Canada has done to make some improvements on product approvals. Once again, when we're talking about product approvals, safety is paramount. We're not looking for fast-tracking of approvals. We're looking for thoughtful, efficient approvals, often turning to other jurisdictions that may have approved these products for the sharing of leading science.
As I said, our members develop the innovative products that consumers demand for the Canadian market, but it's with getting approvals in a timely manner that we're seeing some challenges. Registering a product or getting a product approved by Health Canada can take on average five years longer than it does in the United States. I say this not in advocating for a U.S. model, for there are many issues with the U.S. model, but we are definitely seeing significant delays in Canada that don't need to be that way.
As I said, though, in the past several months we have seen some changes via Bill C-38. There's been some modernization and simplification of Health Canada's regulations without putting consumers at risk. For example, I believe the Canadian Beverage Association, when they were here, talked about the approval of the sweetener, stevia, which provides a greater choice for consumers interested in carbohydrate-reduced diets. That was a very big approval, and one that we were waiting for a long time.
We support the current efforts. Of course, we'd like to see things move more quickly and would support any efforts this committee can make to continue looking for more efficient, thoughtful ways to make the regulatory environment more responsive to the needs of consumers and to business.
Packaging stewardship and recycling—those of us from Ontario know the blue box very well—is an area of greater and increased cost, but a responsibility that industry takes very seriously, in terms of reducing waste. Provincial governments are responsible for these programs, but we're dealing with the provincial governments on the patchworks of regulations that govern them from province to province. There is a lot of administrative cost in complying with province by province waste diversion rules and regulations. I think it's of interest to this committee, although you don't have direct responsibility, to understand that this is a growing cost factor affecting all folks along the food and beverage value chain.
I want to talk about counterfeit goods very quickly and also about what we call diverted product. That could be a juice that might have been destined for the U.S. market but that, through a broker or a retailer of some kind, somehow came into the Canadian market, maybe without French labelling, maybe with an American nutrition facts table, or maybe directly from Asia with no English labelling at all.
Our concern here, on the food side of things, is the issue of safety and also fairness in the marketplace. If you think of the robust allergen regulations we have in Canada, as some of those products make it onto the shelves in some of our stores there could be some real risk. I want to table this as an issue for this committee to consider working on with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, to give it greater attention. The agency has done some work, but we continue to see a lot of diverted product that is meant for another market being sold in Canadian stores.
I want to credit the government for work done on Bill C-56, the combatting counterfeit products act. I know that MP Erin O'Toole, in his previous life as a legal counsel, worked a lot on the issue. We were really happy to see this bill. You might think about exploding batteries or razor blades and a whole host of fast-moving consumable products that are counterfeit. It's really important that border services and others in law enforcement be aware of this risk and that we work with members on the supply chain to deal with those issues.
Just quickly, as a last point before summary, let me speak about the skilled labour shortage.
Our industry requires a high level of scientific and technological expertise to develop products and to operate facilities across the country. We're increasingly facing shortages in this area and are concerned that they are only going to get worse. We're really lacking in educational training programs that focus on the scientific and technical expertise required to meet skilled labour demands for our industry, and we encourage measures to help meet this demand, including government partnerships with universities and colleges.
In summary, I want to restate our commitment to increasing nutritional literacy and consumer choice for Canadians and to reducing our environmental footprint. To help our industry grow, we need modern regulations to address this patchwork of recycling program issues, the growing presence of counterfeit and non-compliant products, and the issue of skilled labour.
I look forward to working closely with the government and parties on both sides of the aisle on these issues to help our industry innovate and grow in Canada.
Thank you.
