Agriculture committee  Yes, they would be able to propagate further within themselves. That's why it's important that we controlled it and destroyed it and ensured that it didn't persist in the environment.

Agriculture committee  We know that it is not bigger than what we are seeing because of the extensive scientific testing we have done. It is not a registered variety, so it is not commercially available. There is no approved genetically modified wheat in Canada for commercial use or production. Because of that, we were able to look at all of the varieties—there are about 450 varieties in Canada—and it is not a match for anything that is registered.

Agriculture committee  They hadn't reached maturity when they were found and when they were picked up off the side of the road.

Agriculture committee  That's correct. I've described the Canadian regulatory regime. Our American counterparts have a very similar process.

Agriculture committee  In terms of what we're doing now and going forward, as I mentioned, we will focus very much on the monitoring and mitigation plan to ensure there is no persistence in the environment, and that what we have isolated and controlled remains that way and that it does not move into the system.

Agriculture committee  Each of those events were slightly different. We can provide this committee with a bit more detail on those and post it. One was related to a field trial. It was an experience in which there were things you could quickly identify in relation to what was being tested. They were able to manage that relatively quickly.

Agriculture committee  I can speak a little bit to our regime around field trials. Field trials are heavily regulated. I think one of the important points for this committee is that there are buffers put around those field trials. There are 30-metre buffers put around anything that's field-trialed. That is based on science and potential pollen flow so that you don't have contamination into other areas.

Agriculture committee  No, what we found and what the U.S. found are not the same kinds of wheat. They are different varieties of wheat.

Agriculture committee  As I said earlier, we have one of the most stringent regulatory regimes in the world around field trials and in terms of innovation related to biotechnology. One thing we will do as we move out of this period of looking and working through the trade issues is to take some lessons learned, and we'll see where we can strengthen and harden our system even further to ensure that we are taking all steps to minimize the occurrence of what we might call a “rogue” or “mongrel” wheat find such as this, which is related to a genetic modification that is not approved for use in commercial production in Canada.

Agriculture committee  Yes. The Grain Commission has played a significant role with us from the very beginning. They have helped us in some of the scientific analysis. They have also been responsible for some of the significant testing that was done in the grain system to ensure that it was not in the system, that it isn't currently in the system.

Agriculture committee  First, I think we wouldn't want to speculate on what the future might look like. This is definitely an anomaly. We've had a long history of scientific field trials, both in Canada and in the United States. We have a rigorous regime in place, a regulatory regime, around field trials.

Agriculture committee  I think there are two parts to that answer. One is our ability to identify what we've found, and our ability to ensure that it doesn't persist in the environment. Third—and I think this goes to the professionalism of those who work in agriculture—our system works. It was identified as a small amount on the side of a road.

Agriculture committee  First, I think a point of clarification is that there is no sense of speculating in terms of the potential avenues that this may have come from. We have pursued every reasonable evidence-based avenue to understand where it's not, and we're able to speak with confidence that it's not in our system.

Agriculture committee  Yes, in fact we do. We have a database that contains all applications on field trials. We know the locations of all the field trials that we as the regulator have approved.

Agriculture committee  That's correct. We have, over the period of time of our analysis, done significant analysis. We have sampled everything that came off those fields on that farm in 2017—so the 2017 crop. Everything was negative. We're talking about nine fields or approximately 1,500 acres. We have also done detailed surveying in the immediate area, on the field that's adjacent to where the find was, and we have found all negative results from what we've tested with the exception of the ability to confirm the location of and reconfirm the find that was originally found.