Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to speak to you on this important topic.
The BC Craft Farmers Co-op was established two years ago to help B.C.'s legendary craft cannabis farmers transition to the legal market and maintain our province's global brand for cannabis excellence. We operate under the co-operatives act of B.C., in the tradition of thousands of other agriculture co-ops across Canada.
Our B.C. cannabis farmers are truly a national asset. They are the best in the world at what they do, and they should be celebrated. Unfortunately, the federal government's micro-licensing regime is excluding thousands of them, not just in B.C. but across Canada. In the first three-plus years of legalization, barely 80 of B.C.'s craft farmers have completed Health Canada's micro-class regulation maze. By comparison, 6,000 medical farmers in B.C. are licensed with Health Canada. A cannabis policy reset is definitely required to realize the full potential of legalization in Canada and unleash B.C.'s craft cannabis community.
In April our organization hosted a summit in Kelowna with the Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers. Over three days, about 400-plus leaders in the sector came together to hash out some of the challenges created by the federal regime, among other things. Today I'm honoured to present just a couple of the constructive policy proposals that were reviewed, voted on and prioritized by delegates during the summit. There are three of them, and I'll touch on them quickly.
First, the federal government should officially recognize across all legislation that cannabis is actually a legitimate and legal farm activity and product. Canada still does not define cannabis in this way. The B.C. government is planning to exclude structures for use in producing cannabis in the agricultural land reserve. This reality is keeping craft farmers from being eligible for most government assistance.
Second, we need to help these craft farmers transition into this new legal regime and create thousands of rural jobs across Canada. A thousand licensed farmers in B.C. have the potential to create three to four thousand jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue for taxpayers over the next two to three years. These farmers and processors should be able to access capital, grants and small business loans that other agriculture sectors can access. We believe that with the new Pacific economic development agency, a craft cannabis partnership can be created with all the players involved to really grow the sector's capacity. We think there should be economic development grants for indigenous and local governments that want to expand craft cannabis.
Finally, the Cannabis Act needs a reset. It is up for review this year. It continues to rely heavily on the punitive and authoritarian approach that we saw during prohibition. This review does present an opportunity to reset. We believe an all-party House of Commons committee should be the one reviewing the act instead of Health Canada, as oversight is required. We also believe there are some small changes that the minister can make immediately to the act without any disruption in advance of the review, particularly related to the micro production caps, security pre-clearances and so on.
If significant improvements are not made over the coming year and Health Canada continues to approve licences at the current slow rate, summit delegates resolved that jurisdiction should be transferred to an agency mandated to support the industry and help it flourish. We have submitted all these proposals to the various ministers of health, innovation, agriculture and rural development.
To conclude, there's been a lot of speculation about why Canada's industry has not taken off since legalization three years ago and why the illicit market is still such a significant element. The reason is that cannabis legalization has deprived consumers of what they want. They want fresh, locally grown cannabis by farmers who respect the plant and are passionate about their craft. Canada's legalization task force anticipated the risk of excluding these micro farmers. Otherwise, the task force predicted the development of unhealthy monopolies and large conglomerates, and that's what we're experiencing now in our industry.
Our proposals are designed to be practical measures that can achieve win-win scenarios for consumers, small businesses, rural economies, agriculture industries and Canada's tourism sector as well. Working together, we can ensure that the legacy of cannabis legalization is not just that people are no longer arrested for possession of small amounts of cannabis. Instead, the legacy should be tens of thousands of Canadians who are proudly employed and making an honest living for their families doing something they love to do for the benefit of others.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.