Agriculture committee  There are a number of reasons. We have very mature and well-developed regulatory systems. Colleagues in other jurisdictions believe there are lessons they can learn from Canada in terms of how we approach regulating. We have a very strong commitment—and this committee has expressed it on a number of occasions—to a science-based approach to regulating in this space, and that is well respected internationally.

Agriculture committee  Yes, yes. We—

Agriculture committee  We don't see that happen. I think, in part, while the perception is from a consumer perspective, the technology continues to be portrayed in the media, often negatively. It's unlikely that someone would seek to claim anything as genetically modified when it's not.

Agriculture committee  Within the framework of the Canadian organic regime, in order to have the claim of organic, it is has to meet a suite of criteria. Certifying bodies are obligated to conduct audits of the production in order to demonstrate that they align to the requirements of the Canadian organic regime in order for that claim to be made.

Agriculture committee  We're not limited by country. Our limitations are by import requirement. If the company AquaBounty were to pursue production in another country, we in the CFIA would work with that country to establish the import requirements for that country so we could certify the eggs to them.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. I can start. It's important to understand that for traditional varieties—and I'll use plant varieties because we only have the one animal—we don't carry out for a new plant variety all of the safety assessment steps that we take here. This is in addition to and on top of what would normally happen for a new variety to come into the marketplace in Canada.

Agriculture committee  It's highly variable. As we've seen in the European Union, we continue to see approvals of GM crops. The pace at which those approvals take place is much slower than in Canada. Even though they apply the same scientific review process, they have another process on the end of that scientific review that requires all of the member states to agree, and that takes some time.

Agriculture committee  The regulatory system makes no value judgment as to why someone pursued the genetic modification. We just look at safety. The marketplace will decide if a purely aesthetic modification is a worthwhile venture.

Agriculture committee  I'm not aware that there is any significant classification difference, but it does operate under a different regulatory framework. For us to certify products for export to Panama as germ plasm, which the eggs would be, would fall under the aquatic regulatory frame while semen exports, also under the health of animals, falls under the terrestrial animal regulatory frame.

Agriculture committee  CFIA elaborated an organic standard. In order to make the claim “organic” in Canada, there's a suite of rules. The claim is voluntary, but if you make the claim, you have to follow those rules. The framework that oversees this is a collaborative one between us and the organic certification bodies, which we recognize, so they are indeed third parties, yes.

Agriculture committee  We do have separate feed regulatory systems between the Canada and the U.S. There is a tremendous amount of collaboration, but they are two separate systems. It is possible for an animal feed to be approved in the U.S. that's not approved in Canada. With the issue of the approval of the feed, while the feed isn't eligible to come to Canada, our controls related to beef derived from the feeding of that product would be applied at the level of the beef product.

Agriculture committee  We have seen important trade interruptions for Canadian products as a result of low-level presence. Low-level presence is the presence of a genetically modified residue that's approved in the country of origin, but not approved in the country of import. We have seen Canadian flax significantly affected for exports to Europe as a result of residues of an approved GM flax variety that was in production in Canada.

Agriculture committee  The production of these salmon eggs in Canada in containment has been approved.

Agriculture committee  Whether they are exported to Panama is Panama's decision. As for the consumption of the food product and feed product derived from those, that has been approved in Canada.

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's not an unreasonable assumption. That will take all the business calculus around production into account.