Evidence of meeting #40 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was varieties.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
Right now, it would be the U.S., the Netherlands, and western Europe, such as Germany. They're our biggest competitors for ornamental products, but within North America, it's the U.S. They already have a lot of competitive advantages over us, including labour costs, so this is definitely not another area where we need to be in a lower position than they are, let's say.
We still do quite well as a sector, though, I must add, but this would definitely put us on a competitive playing field, and it would put us in a better position to further invest in research and innovation, which I believe our sector and our members are willing to do. Of course we want to make sure those investments are protected in order to get further investment and in the future to give us an even better position in world markets, especially with our biggest competitor, which is the United States.
Conservative
Executive Director, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
They certainly are.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much.
I'll go to Madam Brosseau, please, for five minutes.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
I'd like to thank our witnesses today for their testimony and their valuable input, because this is a big bill. It has about 110 pages and touches nine pieces of legislation, and it is complicated.
I know there are comments that we need to get this done, that we have to be fast, but I think we should take the time to do our homework and make sure that this is in the best interests of farmers moving forward, that this is a forward-thinking piece of legislation, and that we get it right, because there have been instances when we have had other omnibus budget bills or bills and there have been problems with them. It's always harder to fix once it's passed.
For the Organic Council, you mentioned that you had some concerns and some amendments that you would like to see. When we had the minister at committee on the first day we started studying Bill C-18, he said that the government will be moving ahead with an amendment to clarify and to make sure that it is better understood what the farmers' privilege is. I know that you touched on the importance of the term “stocking”. This is something that was brought up earlier by witnesses today, that we need to clarify stocking and say that it means storing.
I was wondering what other things you absolutely want to see in this bill. No matter what, this bill will pass. This will go forward. I want to make sure that when we do come to amendments, which will be shortly, we have your input. Please comment more on what needs to be done to make this a better piece of legislation.
Chair, Organic Council of Ontario
Thank you for this opportunity.
Specifically I would like to see, under proposed subsection 5(1), where it lays out the nature of plant breeders' rights.... Currently farmers' privilege extends only to paragraphs (a) and (b) under proposed subsection 5(1). Under paragraph (a), it is “to produce and reproduce propagating material of the variety”, and under paragraph (b) it is “to condition propagating material...”. Conditioning would be cleaning the seed on our own premises.
Again, this goes beyond organic. This goes to other smaller farmers, dairy farmers who would send their own harvested grains to an off-site facility to be cleaned for planting. Currently the way the exception is written, it would be difficult for that to continue.
Paragraph (g), which is the one you referred to, “to stock propagating material of the variety...”, I would like to see that included in farmers' privilege.
To answer your question as well as the one that I drew a blank on earlier, in proposed subsection 5(1) regarding cross-pollination, there should be an exception to ensure that a farmer is not penalized for genetic material ending up in his crop which he or she did not intentionally procure. If I plant an open pollinated variety of a crop in my field and my neighbour plants something else, even with a 20-foot buffer strip that is treed there will be some cross-pollination. We can't control where the pollinators fly and there will be transference of that genetic material. Every scientist can tell you that. There needs to be protection for farmers that if there is an unintended procurement of that genetic material, they are not penalized for it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
You have about 20 seconds left. Go ahead, please.
I think that's the final word.
Madam Brosseau, you have about 20 seconds.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
I'm sorry about this time delay. I'm not used to it.
I just want to ask the two other witnesses if they can comment on how important it would be to protect farmers from the unintentional patent infringement that could happen. We can't control what bees do, right? I wonder if you could comment on how important it is to make sure that these farmers are protected, because they do not intend to infringe a patent.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
We are just about out of time, so make it very short.
Mr. Bergmann, you may want to make a comment on that, or Mr. Santacruz, I see you're gearing up to answer.
Executive Director, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
I was going to say that the intent of the bill on the plant breeders' rights is to honour the rights of the breeder. The intent is not to seek out producers or farmers, and it's not a witch hunt. I think a lot of it goes back to intent.
If the bill is followed with that spirit, I don't think we should have too many concerns. I speak mostly from the ornamental sector where this is not an issue for us and we also do a lot of self-policing to ensure that everybody is conforming to the spirit of the rights of breeders and the rights of the producers.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much.
I want to thank all of the witnesses today for coming out and being part of this important discussion around Bill C-18.
With that, folks, we'll see you on Thursday morning at 11 o'clock.
The meeting is adjourned.
