Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee for inviting me to speak today about budget 2018.
The Canadian Produce Marketing Association is a 93-year-old trade association representing over 840 companies across the fruit and vegetable supply chain from farm gate to dinner plate. As an industry, we have an economic impact of $15.7 billion on Canada's GDP. We support over 180,000 jobs across the country, and our companies provide approximately $4 billion a year in taxes to the federal and provincial governments. We're proud to play a role in local communities, and in providing Canadian consumers with healthy, safe, and nutritious fruit and vegetables year-round.
Budget 2018 can capitalize on the momentum established by budget 2017 by making investments in critical areas that can bolster the productivity and competitiveness of the fresh fruit and vegetable industry in Canada. In particular, my comments today will focus on four key areas: labour, international trade, research and innovation, and financial risk mitigation.
Labour remains an ongoing challenge for agriculture as a whole, and it's particularly acute for horticulture. It is essential that the government implement innovative solutions to our labour shortage by improving the seasonal agricultural worker program, or SAWP.
We are asking the government to introduce the trusted employer program, which would expedite the hiring process for qualified employers who have maintained a good standing with SAWP over the years. This would greatly reduce red tape and the administrative burden on farmers who have proven themselves as high-quality employers, while addressing a major need for our industry.
Additionally, we are asking the government to improve SAWP by allowing employers who have SAWP placements approved by Service Canada to not need to reapply for their placement if the intended seasonal foreign worker is unable to complete the service.
Combined, these recommendations will help address serious labour issues for our industry. Fundamentally, we can either import labour, or we can import produce that we can traditionally grow here in Canada. Importing produce would mean losing jobs and impacting rural Canada and our entire supply chain.
In the area of international trade, the CPMA and its members fully support the government's push for trade diversification and its goal of achieving $75 billion annually in agri-food exports by 2025, as outlined in budget 2017. To do so, we call on the government to fully implement all recommendations stemming from the May 2017 market access report released by the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. These recommendations will strengthen the industry's position and provide it with the support it needs to grow and be competitive within international markets.
I'd like to turn now to research and innovation.
To better support the initiatives of the fresh produce industry, the government should defer to industry associations in establishing key research innovation priorities based on their expert knowledge of that sector. Ideally, industry associations should be able to provide letters of support for private-sector research innovation funding applications, outlining how the proposed initiative is aligned with pre-established priorities.
Furthermore, as part of its innovation agenda, the government should develop a commercialization funding strategy in order to help bring new products to market and grow the Canadian economy. While many funding mechanisms exist for initial-stage research and development of products, our industry has not been able to access the same kind of funding for the commercialization of research or innovation. Such a strategy would greatly benefit both the industry and consumers.
Finally, I'd like to touch on an issue that has been discussed for the past 35 years by governments of every stripe, including the current government: the creation of a PACA-like deemed trust in Canada and the restoration of Canada's preferential access to the U.S. PACA dispute resolution mechanism.
Prior to October 2014, Canada was the only country in the world whose fresh fruit and vegetable sellers could pay the same nominal amount as U.S. organizations to use the PACA dispute resolution mechanism in cases of no pay or slow pay by an American buyer.
The U.S. government revoked our preferential access since we lacked the reciprocity in terms of a deemed trust in cases of bankruptcy. Canadian sellers now using the PACA dispute resolution mechanism in the U.S. must post a bond totalling 200% of the total claim against the buyer. For many sellers, this is simply not financially viable, and they have had to write off the amount owed as monies lost.
The creation of a PACA-like deemed trust in Canada is a no-cost legislative solution that would benefit sellers in cases involving bankruptcy with a Canadian buyer, while also restoring Canada's preferential access to the U.S. PACA dispute resolution mechanism.
Indeed, this issue was thoroughly studied by the House's Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-food in June 2016. It unanimously called on the government to create a PACA-like deemed trust. Unfortunately, no action has been taken to date, but we remain committed to working with Minister Bains and Minister McCauley on creating such a trust in Canada to restore our industry's competitive advantage when trading with the U.S.
In closing, thank you again to the committee for inviting me to speak. The CPMA is committed to working with the government on all of these issues, and on others as they become relevant. We hope to see an outstanding budget in 2018, supporting our businesses and our future.
Thank you.