Agriculture committee  Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Dennis Prouse, and I am the vice president of government affairs for CropLife Canada. With me is my colleague, Ian Affleck, vice president, biotechnology. CropLife Canada represents the Canadian manufacturers, developers and distribut

Finance committee  Yes, you did.

Finance committee  Yes. What we're looking for is speed and predictability, because that is what investors are looking for. The predictability part is important too.

Finance committee  You can't have a system that's erratic. Without that predictability, they'll go elsewhere.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  You referenced that external advisory committee on regulatory competitiveness. I saw that they were appointed and that, in fact, there was an agriculture leader placed on that committee. We thought that was a really positive development. There has been some good progress. It sta

Finance committee  As I mentioned in my testimony, gene editing is.... There are going to be several examples like this coming, which is why we are beseeching CFIA to have clear, predictable rules on products with gene editing.

Finance committee  In this particular case, it's CFIA and its rules about seeds with novel traits, because it is the one that ultimately holds the key for approvals. As I say, this is just one example. There are potentially many more coming down the pike in the next few years, which is why it's so

Finance committee  It's Sevita. They may even be in your riding; I'll need to check.

Finance committee  Yes. We grow a great deal of soy in Canada.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Yes, it would have. The cherry on top, the added bonus, is that it had a healthier oil profile. That's the great thing about ag innovation. It's developing healthier strains.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  We're not sure.

Finance committee  No, they weren't able to determine whether this was a seed with a novel trait. All seeds with a novel trait have to go through the approval process. It's worth keeping in mind that nowhere else in the world was there a regulatory body that thought this needed to go through an ap