It's great to be back.
I'd like to begin by thanking the committee members and chair for inviting me to speak to you about innovation and competitiveness in the Canadian agriculture sector on behalf of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers.
We're a smaller agricultural industry in Canada, representing about 250 producers who annually generate about $40 million in production value. I think, as a smaller industry with very specific value-added demands, we can provide some unique insights into the opportunities and challenges that confront Canadian agriculture in terms of innovation and competitiveness.
I would like to focus my comments on a critically important aspect of the innovation continuum, and that is the commercialization of research into specific value-added opportunities for producers. As we continue to open global markets and export opportunities, we're becoming increasingly integrated into the global commodity markets. We, as an industry and as a country, need to focus on the value-added side in order to provide a buffer from this volatility and to ensure that there are new markets for a wide range of Canadian farm products.
The growers have, for decades, supported research into better sugar beets, developing beets that produce more sugar or have other enhanced characteristics. We have spent millions of dollars on this research, all to our own detriment. Why to our detriment? Because as the amount of sugar produced by a tonne of beets has increased, it has meant the acreage required has dropped. In simple terms, the growers have funded research programs that benefit processors but hurt growers, so the benefits of crop research do not always accrue to the growers.
Our industry is at a crossroads. We can sit idly by and watch it disappear or we can try to do something about it. Now, our growers are very industrious, innovative, and entrepreneurial so they have chosen to be proactive. In an effort to survive and become self-sufficient, our growers have been seeking new, innovative uses for their crops and they want to invest in a value-added entity that will use their crops as a feedstock. We envision a facility that produces a high-value bioproduct. The growers will have a material ownership stake in the operation and the benefits to Canada would be fantastic, commercializing a new technology, tens of millions of dollars in new investment, new jobs, more taxes being paid, and farmers who share in the value-added benefits derived from their crops.
But there are challenges. The road we are travelling is very expensive and full of risk. The growers are willing to shoulder a lot of that burden, but government support is critical. In my brief time here I would like highlight a few of the challenges our industry is facing and I'll try to shed some light on how important they are to our future competitiveness.
The first is the timeliness of obtaining approval for government grants. As an organization that has been actively involved with Growing Forward, both 1 and 2, I can say that we see a lot of potential in the programs but we have found the timeliness in receiving approval for funding to be quite frustrating. These delays have a direct and significant negative impact on our ability to move our projects forward. Adding to the frustration is that, once you submit your application, it seems to go into a black hole. There often is no government-initiated communication about where your application is in the process, who is involved in accessing the application, or when a decision is expected. I know from discussions with other organizations and around the CFA table, that we are not alone in our frustrations here.
I would remiss if I didn't mention one last challenge we faced. ASBG was encouraged to work towards the creation of a national promotion and research agency. This would have allowed us to charge a research levy on imported sugar, a levy identical to the one all sugar beet growers in Alberta currently pay. This would have provided us with much needed revenue while at the same time helped to level the playing field relative to the cost of imported sugar. We spent considerable time, effort, and money pursuing this only to find that, because of the way the legislation is structured, the number of voting board members is based on the volume of sugar sold. The two major sugar importers would have complete control of this agency. As a result, we had no choice but to abandon this initiative as it seems very unlikely sugar importers would vote for a levy on the foreign-sourced sugar they are importing.
Lastly, I would like to highlight that, as a result of all we have learned and the many challenges we have faced over the past three years, we've developed a pre-commercialization road map that outlines a process that can be followed, potential traps, legal arguments required, intellectual property, sources of capital, etc. While there has been much written and developed respecting research methodology, there is no comprehensive work outlining the numerous challenges associated with the pre-commercialization aspects associated with research development.
We often described this process as the valley of death, as this seemed to be the place that most research projects went to die. We created this road map to help others who may want to travel a similar path. It is one way we hope to give back. The road map has been provided to many grower groups in Alberta, Alberta Agriculture staff, Canadian Federation of Agriculture staff, and to each member of the bio-industrial value chain committee. If any of you are interested in a copy, we'd be happy to provide you with one.
Following the outlined challenges our growers are up against, we are working very hard in an effort to save our industry, but we could use some help. I would now respectfully like to make three recommendations for your consideration.
First, government should ensure there is a reasonable balance between funding for research and funding that supports commercialization.
Second, it would be incredibly helpful if those administering government grants were required to move at the speed of business. Staff should understand this and be assessed based on their ability to respond to applications in a timely fashion. This should become embedded in the culture of those working in roles that impact the timeliness of responses to applications from industry.
Third, a review of the promotion and research agency legislation should be completed to determine if it contributes to the outcomes envisioned when the agencies were created.
On behalf of the 250 sugar beet growers in Alberta, and on behalf of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers, I thank you all again for giving me this opportunity to speak. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.