I don't think this is an issue of safety or security. If it took more time to get something approved for marketplace for safety reasons, we would support that. This is not about fast-tracking or cutting corners on safety.
One example I provided...and this is the crux of the challenge of the food and beverage industry. Looking to respond to consumer demand, looking to respond to health professionals and non-governmental organizations to introduce healthier-for-you, innovative products, our hands are tied in a lot of cases because we can't commercialize the innovation.
Unilever, for example, is a multinational company that sells margarine. They introduced a Becel fortified with plant sterols, which lowers cholesterol and improves heart health. That Becel margarine, that innovative product, was approved in the U.K. in the late nineties and in the U.S. in the late nineties. It just got approved here about two or three years ago. The fortification of margarine with a plant sterols was not approved in Canada. That's one example of many.
It's fine now, but it was all those years of delay. They basically sucked the energy of any company to invest in R and D bodies, facilities, and innovation. You know, why would I go to the Guelph Food Technology Centre and spend a ton of money there, or why would I partner with the University of Toronto or the University of Alberta to do some work, when I'm not even going to be able to use it here?
We're now in a game of catch-up. I want to give some credit for progress, because we're starting to see progress. We've had support from all parties in recognizing that. But we're still playing catch-up. We need to send the message very strongly that Canada's open for business in this space.
There's another thing that I might just add to this. I think a big challenge, which Debbie alluded to, is the plant closures. I'm concerned about a lot of the aging plants we have in Canada, the retooling that's needed, and whether or not the energy is going to be there for reinvestment in those plants. In Ontario we've already seen 50 to 60 plants on the food and beverage side close in the last five or so years. That's really alarming. We're still the number one employment sector in manufacturing in the country, despite those closures, but the closures are continuing. Some are small Canadian operations. Some are multinationals deciding to go elsewhere. We need to better understand why that's happening. We're doing some work with a couple of folks in academia over the next number of months to really try to deep-dive into that.
I was chatting with a CEO of ours, of a mid-sized processing plant. He was visited in east Toronto by a delegation from the state of Georgia, offering basically to give him anything he wanted to relocate his plant there. I don't want to endorse a race to the bottom, or say that we need to give everybody no taxes, free water, and all that kind of stuff, but we need to clearly understand what we're up against. We're competing in a very tough marketplace, and there's some aggressive recruitment stuff happening south of the border.
In terms of any additional supports—I'm not getting into a debate about corporate welfare—we need to have a real discussion on it. The provinces have a role to play here too, in supporting R and D and innovation in our plants in Canada. I think it's an important discussion that the committee and the government really should consider having.