Agriculture committee  Yes, but that's not on the basis of GM. That's just on the basis of quality characteristics that are not GM. It would be extremely difficult in Canada to segregate on the basis of GM. We have our market access policy that says approvals in these countries are required, so we don't face trade issues.

Agriculture committee  I have no doubt that the European system would work the same way as the Canadian system. We have GM canola approved in Europe, and it took us a while. But we would get the approvals.

Agriculture committee  That's right. It was interesting, because there was quite a debate about whether or not we would require market access to Europe. We determined that their regulatory system wasn't functioning. So that was a decision the industry members made together at the table. I'm not sure if the government could make that decision for us, because of the economics of industry, the information that won't be shared with government about access, and those types of things.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I believe that. Frankly, part of our 2015 initiative to get to 15 million tonnes is based on the fact that we need to continue to get investment in seed development in Canada. The companies compete internationally with corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton, and we need to make sure the R and D dollars are coming to canola.

Agriculture committee  We've been dealing with low-level presence for a while, but there's a concerted effort globally to take a look at this as an issue. Governments, seed developers, the grain trade, and several international groups are working on this to try to bring regulatory systems together essentially to have the discussion about how we deal with these events that are approved in a country that has a science-based regulatory system and where you end up with low levels of something that's been approved in another country.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the committee for the invitation to the Canola Council of Canada to be here today. The Canola Council is a vertically integrated trade association that represents all sectors of the canola industry, including seed developers, growers, processors, and exporters.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much to the standing committee for the invitation to the Canola Council of Canada to provide our perspective on the ecoENERGY for biofuels initiative and the federal biofuels policy and programs. Overall, the biofuel story in Canada is a very positive one, with very good environmental and economic development benefits.

Agriculture committee  We compete right now. Canola is a competitive crop. Canola is providing tremendous returns to Canadian farmers. We compete with soy and palm--that's true--and there are some issues in terms of soy in the U.S. and the amount of support and subsidies that soy receives. But canola is a different crop, and because it's 40% oil, we have a different competitive advantage.

Agriculture committee  From the canola point of view, one of the things we do in canola is we have an industry agreement for this: the industry agrees to get approvals in our export markets. We are a bit different because we have a small number of markets: the U.S., Mexico, China, Japan, and now the EU, which we've been fighting for a long time, and some smaller markets.

Agriculture committee  We don't actually IP non-GM. It's a very small part of non-GM. I would say it's virtually at zero now, partly because there is no premium in the marketplace, and it is difficult to produce organic, which is where most of the interest is. In terms of IP-ing, we have several different streams that the canola industry segregates in order to meet specific market needs.

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's fair to say. We have a variety of markets that look for the commodity product; China was an example. But when you look at markets that are prepared to pay more of a premium, we're looking for higher-value products, so most of our high oleic canola goes into the U.S. It's based on market and it's based on value, yes.

Agriculture committee  There isn't right now, but a plant is being built right now called Twin Rivers Technologies. It will be a plant comparable in size to what is functioning in western Canada, so it will be able to process canola and also soy, and it will also be able to refine products. I do know they are looking at increasing canola production in Quebec, and they look at sourcing most of their canola from Ontario and Quebec, they hope, and also soybeans.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question. We support the government's position at the WTO Doha Round in terms of reducing tariffs and reducing domestic support. We understand that Canada has a two-pronged approach to the Doha Round and that it is trying to protect supply-managed commodities in Canada at the same time as it is trying to open up trade.

Agriculture committee  We have a research strategy within the canola industry. There is a piece of it that's focused on production. But as I mentioned earlier, canola is a crop that has been grown for a while. Our focus in terms of research is on the health side for humans--on human nutrition--and on the meal side in terms of improving the meal quality.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My thanks to the committee for inviting the Canola Council here today to provide input to your study on competitiveness in Canadian agriculture. I will give you a little background on the Canola Council. We're the only fully integrated industry association where seed and input companies, growers, exporters, and crushers all sit at the same table to develop a common platform for growth.