Agriculture Committee on April 4th, 2019

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. McLinton, we've talked about the market and government regulation regarding the issue of food security as well as public trust. Is there a role for the market in the evolving products, in GMO and gene editing?

[Jason McLinton]

Absolutely. As I said, our members provide Canadians with the products they want. It's not only a role for the marketplace; it's driven by the marketplace. There's a role for government regulation as well, clearly on things such as food safety, but to comment specifically about GMOs, when we talk about things like mandatory labelling, we have to be very careful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. McLinton, I'm sorry, but I have to cut you off.

Ms. Nassif.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses as well.

I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Poissant.

My first question is for Mr. McLinton, who went to the same university I did. We are both graduates of Concordia University.

Mr. McLinton, welcome to the committee and thank you for your presentation.

The federal government has developed various food-related initiatives, including the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations and the healthy eating strategy put out by Health Canada. Do you think additional measures are needed to meet consumer expectations regarding food safety and sustainability, as well as nutrition quality, in order to improve public trust?

It's often said that not all canned foods have a best-before date indicated and that a standardized approach to quantity is lacking. Sometimes, it's 100 grams, and other times, it's 120 grams, so consumers have to calculate the nutritional value themselves.

Can you answer that question?

[Jason McLinton]

Thank you, Ms. Nassif,

who is a fellow Concordia graduate.

We have never seen anything like the pace of change in food regulation right now. You touched on the safe food for Canadians regulations. There is also marketing to children, which of course you'll all be aware of, and things like that, and front-of-package labelling, all kinds of regulations, particularly affecting food labels. The pace is incredible.

Canada has the world's envy in terms of food safety. I keep saying that it's a recent study, but the study was done in 2014 by The Conference Board of Canada, which actually had Canada tied in first place in the world for food safety. We have a very enviable system, and we and our members are very supportive of the safe food for Canadians regulations. They were really well developed by the CFIA.

Where we see potential room for improvement is exactly in what I touched on. We've done a really good job with those regulations. We're doing a great job with recalls and investigations because RCC and its members get early communications from the CFIA on that.

On consumer notices, which we're seeing more and more of, we're not seeing those same early communications. If anything, we have inspectors coming in and walking away with two heads of romaine lettuce under their arms and not telling us what they're looking for.

Our members have visibility into global supply chains that government would never have, and we would be able to help determine what the source is, because ultimately we share that same objective. Our members don't want to sell produce or any other types of products to Canadians that are going to make them sick.

With some early communication, I think we could improve our food safety system and ultimately the trust in the system, and not have to issue advisories that are confusing and that ultimately erode public trust.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

What about best-before dates? Sometimes they aren't indicated, and that makes people wonder.

[Jason McLinton]

Specifically on expiration and best-before dates, I think we need to do a better job.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Why not put them everywhere?

[Jason McLinton]

I think, as a country, we need to do a better job about public education in that regard, because there actually is a difference between best-before date and expiration date that most—

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

And sometimes it's none of them.

[Jason McLinton]

Right, and some people aren't aware of what that is, and in some cases, with things that have a very long shelf life, it would be inappropriate to put that. I'm thinking specifically about remote communities, northern communities where you have to be very careful about putting a best-before date when something may be perfectly safe to consume but may not be at its freshest, or something like that.

It's something that's worth looking at, and consumer education would be part of that, being mindful of communities where there are different circumstances.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

How can you make it better? To put the expiration date on every product.... I am buying, I am paying and I don't know if I'm eating something that has expired. Not me, but some people have this issue.

[Jason McLinton]

Food safety is our absolute top priority. Before RCC and its members have any other conversation about anything else with regard to food, it's always about food safety. Our members have programs in place to ensure that the food they sell is safe.

If you're going to a Canadian store and you're buying something that's unsafe, such as something that's past an expiry date, let me know about that because—

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

If we don't have the expiry date, how do I know what I'm eating? Is it expired or not? We do trust, but if we don't have the expiry date, what should we do?

[Jason McLinton]

I'm not familiar with any type of product that doesn't have an expiry date on it but should. If that exists, I'd really be interested to know more about it.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you.

I will now turn the floor over to Mr. Poissant.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Nassif.

Thank you to the witnesses.

I'd like to follow up on what Mr. McLellan started talking about.

Like you, I was a farmer. I ran a dairy farm for 40 years, and I was a grain producer. Emotional distress was an issue in the setting I worked in. That's the reason I'm here: I want to protect Canadian farmers.

Today's topic is public trust in Canadian farmers, but how can we show farmers that we have confidence in them?

Consultations on agriculture and farming are held regularly, but the numbers are alarming. Consider this: only 50 years ago, Quebec was home to 50,000 farms, and today, just 28,000 remain. In Canada, the number of farms has gone from 110,000 to less than 100,000. Farmers are under a lot of stress. Money, the weather, herd health, regulatory requirements and public trust all play a role.

I'd like you to elaborate a bit further on what you started saying earlier.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Poissant, it is now Mr. Dreeshen's turn.

You have two minutes for your questions.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Thank you very much.

I have just a couple of quick comments. First, there was a discussion on the new food guide. If you take a look at it, you realize that “an egg” will feed a family of four. If you want the meat on that, it's about the size of an eraser. Therefore, I think maybe people are looking at this and trying to make some decisions for themselves. They're saying, “Hey, is this just one more attack on different producers?” because it seemed to work.... The way in which you eat, that's a little different story. All those healthy things should be dealt with. But Canada's new food guide has a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering just where it is we're going on this.

Ms. Sharratt, you have been speaking about GMOs and the discussions about that. You talked about the concern around moving genetics around at the molecular level. You do realize that this is what is done and has been done in Europe. They use a different method, which is radiation. These things have been moved around. However, because it's been done for so long, all of a sudden that isn't a problem. This new technology that is here, though, that we are using, seems to be demonized. So when you speak about labelling, would you put the same efforts into talking about all of the products that are being produced around the world using other techniques, or is it simply the GMOs that seem to be the issue with your organization?

[Lucy Sharratt]

Well, our organization is a network of 16 groups that are all looking specifically at genetic engineering. It's a technology with enough power and enough applications that it touches on a wide range of really important issues.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Are they looking, then, at what is happening in Europe? They're blocking us and not allowing us to move our products into Europe because they have their own process that they are using, and it's a non-tariff trade barrier versus this scientific argument about what is good and what is bad. Are they talking about the Europeans?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I would ask you to give a very short answer.

[Lucy Sharratt]

Each government has its own regulatory system.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

This was a very interesting conversation. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have.

Yes, Mr. Shipley.