CCGA voices support for Bill C-359

With Bill C-359 being introduced to the House of Commons, lawmakers are looking to streamline some agricultural acts.

That includes the Feeds Act, the Seeds Act, and the Pest Control Act.

Rick White, the President and CEO of the Canadian Canola Growers Association voiced his support.

"Conceptually, we agree 100%. I mean the devil is always in the details, but the intent is certainly needed. We think agriculture can benefit a lot from this, not just the canola industry, but the agriculture industry as a whole including the livestock sector and all aspects of grains and oil seeds and other parts of agriculture too. So it's wide sweeping and it is, I think, welcome news that this kind of an approach needs to be looked at closely."  

He says that the bill can help out all sectors of the agriculture industry.

"The question is within each one of those areas, how broad can it go and I would suggest the streamlining, less bureaucracy. Let's not duplicate research and data that's already been created by other jurisdictions or ahead of us on some of these technologies and innovations," said White, "The key here is to coordinate more collaboratively with other countries around the world who have solid and robust science-based regulatory approaches, the same way that we approach things, why not use their data?"

"Why do we wait and have to recreate and start from square one when we get the leverage? The current model is probably too cautious and I think our innovation comes several years after other countries have already approved their pathways to commercialization and they get ahead, their farmers get ahead of innovation ahead of our Canadian farmers. So that puts us at a competitive disadvantage for a few years, gives them the lag and we're trying to get that lag minimized as much as possible so we can compete on a level playing field."