Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to join you here today to talk about some of the initiatives that the Retail Council has undertaken with respect to animal welfare.
Just briefly about the Retail Council, we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We were formed in 1963 and have been the voice of retail since that time. Our industry touches the daily lives of Canadians in every corner of the country by providing jobs, career opportunities, and investing in the communities we serve. Retail is the second largest employer of Canadians across the country. It's a fact we're very proud of, and we're looking forward to continuing to provide the service you expect, as well as the opportunities that our industry can provide.
Allow me just briefly to talk about the context of some of the work we've recently done. We have been an active participant in various discussions that have been referred to today and that were talked about in your earlier hearings on Tuesday with producer organizations and groups concerning various animal welfare issues. Our role in these discussions is very targeted, if you will, and it is to reflect the expectations of our consumers while working collaboratively with our supply partners.
Expectations have been changing, there's no doubt. International legislation, activist campaigns, actions and commitments that other food service and retailer groups have been making, and a consumer interest in transparency have resulted in a different landscape related to various issues related to animal welfare.
In order to be part of the solution, and I think this is a theme you've heard throughout your discussions and hearings, RCC is also a member of the National Farm Animal Care Council, or NFACC. I won't repeat what others have said, but we view this as a very useful forum to have discussions, to come up with the right approaches, understanding the science, as Tina has said, and also having people around the table where we come up with a code of practice with respect to various sectors, if you will, that really benefits from understanding the demands, the pressures, and the science affecting the whole industry. We're huge supporters of that process and look forward to continuing to be a part of it.
Let me very briefly speak to the commitment we released in April 2013—April of this year—as it relates to alternative housing for sows. I'll just read the commitments we have made and that were published. We made this voluntary commitment on behalf of the RCC grocery members, who represent approximately 85% of the industry. The reason the industry came forward with a commitment was really to send a consistent message or a clear signal, if you will, to the pork industry, that rather than having a patchwork of commitments on alternative housing that would be almost impossible to respect and respond to:
RCC grocery members support the Canadian Pork Council’s process to update its Codes of Practice and will work towards sourcing fresh pork products from sows raised in alternative housing practices as defined in the updated Codes by the end of 2022.
To be clear, the emphasis in our commitment is that it's done within the pig code process, and we have not specified what type of alternative housing process because that would really pre-empt and pre-judge the outcome of the code practice. But we wanted to work within that framework.
The members have also committed to dialogue with stakeholders in the pork supply chain, including the Canadian Pork Council, and through our membership and committee participation in the NFACC process. Each company will take this voluntary commitment and work within it. But they will implement the specific business practices in consultation with their vendor and supply partners, as any voluntary commitment must be undertaken in order to take effect.
As indicated, we are supporting the NFACC and the Canadian Pork Council process and the updating of the code of practice, which will be released this Saturday for a public consultation. We understand that the code will proactively deal with a number of issues, some of which Tina had talked about relevant to pig welfare, including sow housing, pig space allowances, social management of sows, pain control, and methods of euthanasia. We will continue to be active participants in that process as it moves to the public consultation stage.
Just yesterday, Mr. Chair, we met with our partners at the Canadian Pork Council to continue the discussions to understand how the commitment the retail industry has made to look for alternative housing methods by 2022 can be met, some of the challenges that industry is under in order to meet those timelines, as well as some of the demands we are facing from our customers and the reasons behind the commitment we've made.
I too look forward to your questions. I look forward to a great debate, but I think the bottom line here is that the Retail Council, on behalf of its members, welcomes this discussion. We are really looking forward to being part of the solution in order to respond to our customers' expectations around animal welfare.
Thank you very much.