Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all committee members for this invitation.
The CTAQ, which I am representing here today, has over 550 members, which makes it the largest group of food processors in Quebec.
The Canadian food and beverage processing industry is the second largest manufacturing industry in Canada and the largest in Quebec. It is the largest employer in the Canadian manufacturing sector in terms of the production value, and it is the key link in the agri-food system because it is one of the major buyers of Canadian primary agricultural products.
Recently, the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, chaired by Dominic Barton, recommended several measures to the government that would benefit the Canadian economy as a whole.
The council established agri-food as a key sector of the economy, one that presents untapped potential, as well as significant global growth prospects, and will require some attention to benefit from it.
To realize this potential, the council recommends an approach that uses carefully chosen strategic measures to eliminate obstacles, including excessive regulation, interprovincial trade barriers, forms of inefficient subsidies and market-related challenges.
The four pillars proposed in the new food policy are commendable, and are: increasing access to affordable food; improving health and food safety; conserving our soil, water and air; and growing more high-quality food.
However, the main thrusts laid down in this policy do not speak of strategic measures and do not encourage the creation of winning conditions to promote the growth of the sector.
In addition, the messages launched by this policy suggest that the food industry is deficient, heedless, and does not do enough. For example, when we talk about improving food safety and health, or producing more high-quality foods, there is doubt about the integrity of our Canadian food system, which is recognized as one of the best in the world.
The same comment applies to the environmental aspect. The food industry is already very active in many sectors, including water, recycling, recovery of waste material and organic waste, and energy consumption.
We all want greater accessibility to food in Canada, but the government will have to recognize its role and responsibility to ensure that it is accessible.
The food policy, in its present form, omits important actions and axes, such as ensuring the sustainability and growth of the food industry, promoting a culture of innovation within the food industry, encouraging local purchasing, ensuring the reciprocity of our standards for imported products, ensuring market access, addressing labour and productivity challenges, and so on.
On the one hand, the Government of Canada invites the industry to become the world leader in food production, and to invest in innovation to stimulate economic growth and meet global demand, which, is expected to triple by 2050. On the other hand, the government offers nothing in this new food policy to support these demographic and economic realities.
The industry is willing to take on the challenge, but is concerned that because of the many ongoing regulatory modernization activities, capital needs to be invested in regulatory compliance rather than innovation and growth. The introduction of new food inspection regulations, combined with new food labelling requirements and marketing restrictions, imposes a significant additional burden and additional costs on food manufacturers in Canada. The committee should also examine the impact of these new regulations on the competitiveness of the food industry.
In conclusion, we wonder how the government will reconcile the food policy as proposed with the recommendations of the Advisory Council on Economic Growth. We wonder how the government will ensure that its food industry will become a pillar of Canada's economic prosperity and meet the social demands of its new policy.
Thank you for listening.