Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee for hearing from us today.
Our organization has been involved as the Canadian national organization for the Canadian hemp industry. The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance was established in 2003 to advance the industry. We have over 240 members from all 10 provinces and one of the two territories right across the country. We represent over 240 members, spanning the entire value chain, from producers right through to processors and companies that are making hemp products in the food industry.
I'm involved with a hemp farm in Alberta and have been board chair for the last five years at Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance.
Since the passage of the Cannabis Act, Health Canada has, unfortunately, significantly harmed the Canadian hemp industry through inattention, neglect and wholly inappropriate regulatory interpretation. This has directly contributed to the significant loss of hemp acreage in Canada, from 118,000 acres in 2017 to 60,000 acres in 2021, and likely even less this year. Health Canada's regulatory oversight has significantly undermined Canada's position as the global leader in hemp for food.
Today we are asking the committee to engage an emergency study on the current regulatory oversight of hemp under the Cannabis Act and the industrial hemp regulations. The results of that study, we believe, will support our request to move the responsibility for the hemp file from Health Canada, which doesn't understand it, to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which does understand it.
Our industry grew significantly from 1998, when the production and processing of hemp was legalized in Canada, right through to 2017. The Cannabis Act came into force in 2018.
In 2017, our industry generated more than $180 million in sales, exported $97 million in value-added products, supported over 1,000 jobs, provided $9 million in federal and provincial corporate taxes and contributed approximately $370 million to the Canadian economy.
As Mr. Dubois testified, in addition to being an excellent source of plant oils and proteins, hemp is a tremendous contributor to carbon sequestration and low-emission agricultural production. Competitors in the U.S., Europe, Australia, China and other countries are awakening to the potential of hemp and are amending their regulatory regimes to enable this important crop.
The passing of the Cannabis Act and the industrial hemp regulations was intended to consolidate all hemp-related regulation, delineate between hemp and high-THC cannabis, streamline regulatory processes and remove certain restrictions. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened. Our industry has been damaged since Health Canada began regulating it under the new Cannabis Act.
The entire industry is concerned about the regulatory implementation. It's less concerned about the Cannabis Act itself and the industrial hemp regulations themselves, although there are definitely opportunities for improvement. It's more about the interpretation of those regulations and how Health Canada has actually regulated hemp. Despite hemp seed and hemp stalks being exempted from the Cannabis Act under schedule 2, Health Canada has continued to regulate all hemp and provide advice to any people in the industry interested in using hemp, as it is a controlled substance that requires a cannabis type of handling.
CHTA concurs with Mr. Dubois' testimony that it is time for a review of the regulatory environment and an amendment to the regulatory practices, which are damaging the industry.
I will turn it over to Mr. Haney to share some specific examples. CHTA has a great deal of evidence to provide in this regard.