NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Laurent Pellerin came away from a meeting with federal agriculture ministers last week convinced change is coming for controversial Product of Canada standards.
The federal requirement that 98 percent of a product must be Canadian to qualify for the label designation is considered unrealistically high by processors and many producer groups who argue few products could ever qualify.
“This is definitely a problem,” Pellerin said in a July 9 interview after CFA hosted a meeting with federal and provincial ministers. “We think 80 percent is probably the right figure as long as that 80 percent is 100 percent Canadian. We told the ministers we are prepared to work with them on this. I think we have moved ahead a little bit.”
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But after talking to agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and minister of state for agriculture Jean-Pierre Blackburn, is change coming?
“My feeling is that there is a crack in the door,” said Pellerin. “It is not a fully open door yet but we see a crack and we will work with that to make it wider.”
On July 10 after the ministers’ meeting, Blackburn continued to hint at changes.
“We talked about labelling when it comes to Canadian producers, what it means and we took into account their concerns and Mr. Ritz and I are going to work so that consumers are protected and we also will try and mitigate the difficulties of the producers,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of imminent change, Ritz was non-committal.
“We put the 98 percent level in place at the direction of Canadian producers and Canadian consumers,” he said. “Certainly there are some processors that are questioning that. They have some problems with some of the additives. We are still firmly in place that this has to be Canadian products predominantly.”
Ritz said discussions are ongoing about whether the threshold is appropriate. “At the end of the day, this has to serve Canadian consumers and Canadian producers.”
Critics insist the government over reacted.
The House of Commons recommended Canadian content should be at least 85 percent to warrant the label.
Prime minister Stephen Harper caught the industry by surprise when he announced that to be Product of Canada, it would have to be totally or “virtually” all-Canadian content.
That was translated into 98 percent.
Processors complain that cooking oils or additives make that almost impossible to achieve. Producer groups have complained that the high threshold means they do not have the advantage in the Canadian market they had expected.
