Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here with us today.
Thank you, Mr. Innes, for emphasizing our study's importance.
Indeed, we in this new Liberal government are committed to reducing red tape and ensuring that we have a modern regulatory system. That's why we're undertaking a reform. As Mr. Northey said, there is an accumulation of regulations, and although each one has a purpose, this accumulation poses a problem.
Our agencies have taken a first step, and this committee's aim is to encourage them to go even further, particularly by listening to what experts like you have to say.
As for the idea of simply changing the agencies' mandate, I fear that this may not be enough. As government officials told us a few weeks ago, food security and economic issues are already part of their mandate, either implicitly or explicitly.
In my opinion, we need to go beyond defining a mandate. We really need to institutionalize collaboration and best practices. We have heard some excellent recommendations in this regard, particularly from the representatives of the National Cattle Feeders' Association. Mr. Epp also mentioned this.
According to them, if “two or more trusted global jurisdictions” recognize a product already, then we should provide what they call a “provisional registration”.
That means that the product would be immediately available while the analyses are being done.
My colleague Mr. Epp also spoke about the reverse onus proposal. This would involve, for example, creating an external advisory committee to represent the industry. This committee would be responsible for reviewing seed regulations and could recommend solutions to the reported problems. Its recommendations would be binding unless the agency can prove that a particular solution can't be adopted because it poses a health risk.
Our own officials have also proposed treating high-risk and low-risk products separately. The goal would be to speed up the registration of low-risk products and take the time needed to deal with high-risk products.
I'd like to hear your comments on these recommendations first, Mr. Innes.
I'll ask Mr. Collins to send us a written response later.