Canada's agriculture sector remains undecided about new federal ag bill

Thursday, December 12, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Farm and agri-business groups across Canada are poring over the proposed federal agricultural growth bill to figure out what it means for growers and agricultural businesses.

But so far very few groups contacted this week have a complete handle on whether farmers will come out winners due to the large number of changes proposed in the bill that impacts nine different acts used to regulate farming. Agri-business groups also aren’t sure yet what effect the changes will have on feed mills, crop input suppliers and grain elevators.

The agricultural growth bill, introduced Monday to the House of Commons, proposes several changes to legislation under the authority of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency including:

• Plant Breeders’ Rights Act
• Feeds Act
• Fertilizers Act
• Seeds Act
• Health of Animals Act
• Plant Protection Act
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act.

The bill, which has received first reading, also proposes changes to two acts under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s authority – the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act and the Farm Debt Mediation Act.

Halton farmer Peter Lambrick says what he needs the government to do with regulations is make them reasonable “and as simple as possible. Don’t make it more onerous than it has to be.”

Lambrick says he’ll take at face value federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s assertion the bill will increase farmers’ access to new crop varieties, enhance trade opportunities and the safety of agricultural products, reduce red tape and contribute to Canada’s overall economic growth. “But I do want to see it.”

One group that says the bill will have a positive impact on farming is Grain Farmers of Ontario, which is a member of Partners in Innovation. This is a group of 12 national and provincial farm and agri-business organizations that have recently come together to support the government’s legislation to improve plant breeders’ rights in Canada.

Grain Farmers chair Henry Van Ankum says they support the government’s efforts to strengthen plant breeders’ rights and align Canada’s legislation with the International Union for Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV ’91). “We feel that’s an important step to try and create an attractive climate within Canada for private companies’ seed development investment.”

Some farmers are concerned meshing Canadian plant breeders’ rules with the international ones will mean handing control of the seed system over to large international multinational corporations and increased costs for farmers. Van Ankum says the proposed extension of time that royalties can be collected, to 20 years in the new proposal compared to 15 years now, isn’t a big concern to them because “the way the genetics development pipeline works now is often a variety can be replaced with something better well before the 15 year (royalty collection) period is finished. Farmers typically move to those newer varieties that offer stronger performance.”

Overall Grain Farmers supports the changes proposed in the agricultural growth bill and “we believe it will” have a positive impact on farmers and farming, Van Ankum says, noting it will lead to less red tape “going forward.”

One of the real strengths of the bill will be to give regulators the authority to consider foreign scientific reviews, data and analyses during the approval or registration of new agricultural products in Canada, which will lead to a more effective approval process. This is something farm and agri-business groups say they have requested for some time and it has the potential to have a huge impact on farming because a large number of products fall under this.

Elena Koutsavakis, CFIA spokesperson, says by email veterinary biologics, such as antibody products and in vitro diagnostic test kits that are used for the prevention, treatment or diagnosis of infectious diseases in animals, are included here because they fall under the Health of Animals Act. However, veterinary drugs and pesticides aren’t part of these proposed changes because they are regulated by other acts that aren’t part of the agricultural growth bill.

Van Ankum says using scientific data from other countries in the approval process for new farm products here is a positive step forward.

Ryder Lee, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association manager of federal and provincial relations, agrees. “That’s something we’ve been requesting for a long time.”

One of the current acts slated for changes, the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act, governs programs farmers like. Lee says farmers generally like the Advance Payments Program “so any improvements they (the federal government) can make there to simplify the delivery and ease access, like they said, will be seen as positive.”

The ability for farmers to access innovative products depends on the government’s processes for approving new products. “In a global business like beef, the access to something that’s new and innovative that can shave $10 or $20 per animal off is a big, big deal when we’re finishing three million head a year,” he says. “That adds up to some serious change.”

About changes to strengthen plant breeders’ rights in Canada, Lee says he doesn’t see the alignment of Canada’s rules with UPOV ’91 as detrimental to farmers. Instead he says “anything that’s going to make companies invest in exploring new seed varieties in Canada and launching them in Canada is positive.”

Once the government agricultural growth bill is passed, Canada will be joining other countries that have already brought their plant breeders’ rights in line with UPOV ’91. Lee says he hasn’t heard of the “world falling down around the United States or Australia with UPOV ’91. My level of concern subsides when I look at how many countries are already living under this regime and their farmers are okay.”

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is going through the bill now to figure out “what it means,” says president Ron Bonnett. “We haven’t got a definitive answer yet.”

But Bonnett notes changes are proposed to the cash advance program and farmers have been asking for these changes for some time. The government is holding “a very fast-tracked consultation period to walk through how to implement some changes to streamline the whole program and make it more effective.”

Also working to figure out what the bill means for their members are the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Ontario Agri-Business Association and the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada, a national trade group for Canada’s feed industry.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales says the changes to the advance payment program are “about reducing paperwork.” Many of the changes are being put in place now and the federal legislation “will allow the changes to take place.”

The agricultural growth bill includes a new licensing and registration regime for animal feed and fertilizer operators. Graham Cooper, executive director of the animal nutrition association, says this will impact feed companies but “we have not yet had a chance to discuss the details of the legislation with the people at CFIA.” They will be doing that next week.

Cooper says the terms ‘licensing’ and ‘registration’ are both used in the bill but it isn’t clear what “if any difference there is between those two terms. There must be a difference, I would suggest.” Neither term is defined in the bill.

The bill will require establishments that import, export or sell products across provincial borders to be licensed or registered before they can conduct business. “What is unclear at this point in time is how much of the industry would actually be affected by that,” he says.

About giving CFIA the authority to look at foreign government’s scientific analyses and data when approving new products, Cooper says this will remove some red tape but he couldn’t say if it would lead to cost savings for farmers on their feed bills. “There are a lot of things that go into determining the cost of feed.”

But over time, the government’s bill would result in giving Canadian farmers access “to the full range of ingredients that are used across the world, which today perhaps are discouraged from coming into Canada by virtue of our cumbersome regulatory system,” he notes.

Another fairly major change in the bill is the need for preventative control and hazard identification plans for commercial feed establishments. “This is very consistent with what is happening in the United States and in the European Union,” he says.

Dave Buttenham, chief executive officer of the Ontario Agri-Business Association, says they’re looking at the legislation “to see what the ramifications are for our sector.” National agri-business associations will also be studying the bill from a “national scope but we’ll also be looking at it from an Ontario business-based approach.” BF