Evidence of meeting #54 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 companies.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Mr. Chair, I'd like to give Larry the rest of my time.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Thank you very much, colleague.
Rick, you've made very clear your position with regard to the use of science in these whole areas and dispute mechanisms. I appreciate your comments with regard to a more permanent tribunal for presenters and for appeals on these programs, because then you would have some continuity. I think your whole presentation comes down to your seeking predictability. Is that correct?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Canola Growers Association
Yes. I just want to make it clear that the tribunal concept relates directly to the Agreement on Internal Trade. That agreement should be handled by a tribunal. I'm not saying that neonics have to circumvent PMRA's science-based regulatory approach.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
For sure, and I think that's key.
Mr. Kyte, you talked about a lot of these situations from outside the country coming in and that sort of thing. The impact those might have on interprovincial barriers might not be as obvious. If one province has a set of rules that allow that product to come in, and another province has rules that are more restrictive and do not allow it to come into theirs, then you have an internal barrier within Canada, differences in regulations, and differences in rules for these processes.
Your whole presentation is based on the question of where the money to establish these projects will come from. The capital will not go to where there is a deficiency and allow business to move forward under the regulations that would normally be there.
How do you see we would be best able to get all the provinces onside for interprovincial programming, other than through ag meetings, ministerial meetings, premiers meetings, and those kinds of things? If you had to make your presentation to them, what one or two key issues would you tell them about?
President, Food Processors of Canada
I think for the further processed items—the dinners, the entrees, the canned goods—all the regulations allow us to ship interprovincially. The problem arises when somebody in, say, New Brunswick wants to ship to Nova Scotia and their product doesn't meet those national regulations. You couldn't really allow that to be shipped interprovincially. You couldn't lower that standard, because right away doing that would start to affect your international trade. Some people in the United States could then ship to that lower standard. I don't think we want to do that.
If you look at the dairy industry, it has standards with regard to what you can call cheddar and what you can call mozzarella. You don't want to bastardize that and then eventually face something you would rather not.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much, Mr. Maguire, and that's the end.
I want to thank our witnesses very much for coming out, and, Rick, for being on video conference. We appreciate it very much.
There was a question that had come up about the minister, and I think Mr. Keddy may have a comment.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Will we go in camera to do committee business, or will I go ahead?
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Okay.
We're happy to have the minister come as soon as he can. We'll get him here probably for an hour and then officials in the second hour.
How is that?
Conservative