After months of hearing complaints about the federal government’s high threshold for Product of Canada labelling, the cabinet minister responsible is signaling a change could be announced soon.
Revenue minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, who is also minister of state for agriculture, has been conducting consultations on the issue and recently said he hopes to announce something shortly.
He has heard criticism from farm groups, food processors and consumers that the 98 percent threshold to use the label is too high.
“No decision has been taken yet,” he said at news conference.
“It’s still in progress and we hope to be able to give some final observation pretty soon.”
Blackburn said consumer groups have let him know they are not happy with the high threshold.
“They realize that there are some problems with the definition of 98 percent,” he said.
Food Processors of Canada president Chris Kyte said the promise of an announcement likely means the government plans to lower the bar closer to the 85 percent Canadian content requirement that the House of Commons agriculture committee suggested after hearings.
Instead, prime minister Stephen Harper jumped the gun last year and announced that for consumers to know if their food is Canadian grown, 98 percent of a product would have to be grown in Canada before it could carry the Product of Canada label.
It replaced a rule that more than 50 percent of the cost of the product, including processing and packaging, had to be incurred in Canada before a label could be used.
Industry and consumer groups said it was a ridiculously low bar, allowing imported food to be labelled Canadian if other processing or packaging costs in Canada were more than half.
But critics have argued for the past year that the Conservative government over-reacted.
Kyte said the irony of the policy impact came in Harper’s announcement.
“I remember when the prime minister announced the new Product of Canada rules, he specifically said in future, ice cream labelled Canadian ice cream would be made from Canadian cream,” he said.
“But at 98 percent, you can’t label it Product of Canada because of the sugar content that makes up more than two percent and usually is imported.”
He said the government’s high threshold has undermined the core intent of the policy announcement.
“I don’t think you will find a single processed Product of Canada in the marketplace because no one can meet the standard.”
Blackburn said he is sensitive to the criticisms.
“This question I take very seriously,” he said.
“I listen to those people and we’ll see what should be the next step for the government.”
