Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.
We are pleased to be here on behalf of the Partners in Innovation to speak to you today about amendments to the plants breeders' rights legislation within the agricultural growth act, as proposed in Bill C-18.
My name is Mark Brock. I'm a corn and soybean producer in Ontario. My organization is Grain Farmers of Ontario. We are an active participant in the Partners in Innovation coalition.
Beside me is David Jones from the Canadian Potato Council and the Canadian Horticultural Council. We're going to share the presentation today.
First, I want to introduce the Partners in Innovation. It's an informal coalition of 20 provincial, regional, and national organizations across Canada, representing the vast majority of farmers in Canada and almost all the crop production across the country.
These 20 organizations represent producers' value chains in grains, oilseeds, pulse crops, fruits, and vegetables in all provinces. We have come together as Partners in Innovation for two purposes: one, to clearly demonstrate to policy-makers and decision-makers that the majority of farmers in value-chain groups support and need updated plant breeders' rights legislation in Canada; and, two, to make sure that farmers, policy-makers, decision-makers, and the public have access to clear and correct information on proposed amendments.
As a point of clarification, while each of the participants in the Partners in Innovation coalition has individual views on other provisions of Bill C-18, we are all united in our support for the proposed amendments to Canada's plant breeders' rights legislation, to bring them into compliance with the most recent international convention, which is UPOV 91.
All the participants in the coalition couldn't be here for the presentation, but from coast to coast and from crop to crop, they have provided clear reasoning for supporting PBR amendments. I'll give you just a few examples.
The BC Grain Producers Association president says, “Modernization of plant breeders' rights will help stimulate research in the grain sector as well as foster investment in competitiveness with new varieties”.
The chair of the Atlantic Grains Council says, “With up-to-date plant breeders’ rights legislation in Canada, we are hopeful that suitable international seed varieties will become available to our region, helping Atlantic growers with our unique agronomic challenges”.
I hope this makes it clear that the crops sector strongly supports and needs amendments to the plant breeders' rights to ensure that our farmers have access to new and improved varieties developed in Canada and internationally. We just have to look at the new, exciting developments since the government announced the proposed changes to understand how important these amendments are. Recently, sod has been turned for a new research and breeding centre in Saskatoon. A new partnership between Canadian seed companies and international plant breeders has been formed to bring improved varieties to Canadian farmers. All these decisions are predicated on the updated PBR legislation, and the resulting benefits are at risk should these amendments not be implemented.
I will now turn it over to David.