Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), in 2013, confined field research trials were not prohibited at the Central Experimental Farm, CEF. While Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, AAFC, received authorization from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, to conduct field trials at the CEF, AAFC withdrew the approved application as it was determined that the project did not require field trials. Thus AAFC did not proceed with any trials during this period.
With regard to (b), in 2014, AAFC did not have any projects requiring field trials at the CEF, and thus no applications were made to CFIA to conduct confined field research trials during 2014. Therefore, there were no field trials of crops with novel traits conducted at the CEF in 2013 or 2014.