OTTAWA – Food sector players nervous that the federal government might create restrictive new controls over the products of biotechnology can relax a little, government and industry representatives suggested last week.
When Ottawa produces biotech rules, it will leave primary responsibility for new product testing and evaluating new products where it now resides – with primary departments such as Agriculture Canada.
And it will continue to judge new products on the traditional basis of whether they meet health, safety and effectiveness standards, rather than on whether genetic manipulation was part of the process.
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Environmentalists and some biotech skeptics have been pushing the view that control of new products should fall more directly under Environment Canada and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
They used a sometimes sympathetic Houe of Commons environment committee last spring to make their arguments.
“I know this has made the industry uneasy,” said Ontario MP Jerry Pickard, parliamentary secretary to the agriculture committee. “I know of no plans by the government to make significant changes based on the narrow perspectives of one group or another.”
He said the government considers biotechnology a “fantastic opportunity” for agricultural advances.
Jack Wilkinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, was one industry representative who appeared before the committee in May to warn against new rules that would make it more difficult to introduce new products that have been touched by biotechnology.
He said traditional product safety and effectiveness tests should continue to be the standards applied by various departments which judge the acceptability of new products, including Agriculture Canada and Health Canada.
The industry view is that products should be judged on their own merits and properties, rather than by the process used to make them.
“I think the signal has gone out that everything will not be moved from line departments like agriculture to the minister of environment,” Wilkinson said. “That would be unacceptable.”
The environment committee said it needs more study before it makes recommendations to government.
It has announced there will be more hearings when Parliament reconvenes in September.
Some witnesses and some MPs on the committee have advocated greater application of Environment Canada rules to so-called novel foods or other biotech-affected products. There also have been suggestions that labels be used to identify any product touched by biotechnology.
Influence worrying
The continuation of the hearings has left some industry representatives uneasy about what influence the environmentalists may have on writing new rules.
Joyce Groote of the Ottawa-based Food Biotechnology Centre said last week the government has signaled it does not plan special legislation to apply new rules to biotech products.
She said the delay in knowing the new rules has created some frustration and uncertainty in industries that can use biotechnology, but delays are inevitable.
“Frankly, I think it would be difficult for the government to finalize anything until we find out what our trading partners do and the rules they set,” she said.
