The United States and Australia have joined in a lobby by consumers, the Canadian food processing and retailing industries and several provinces to urge Ottawa to overturn an all-party agreement made this summer about dairy terms on food products that do not include the named product.
The Liberal government, facing a minority Parliament and with fewer than 12 parliamentary work weeks before the next election, is considering whether to risk bringing the legislation forward for debate and approval.
The forces lined up against it are financially and politically powerful.
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“The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) is reviewing it, taking into account the comments that are being made,” said Matt Tolley, press secretary to agriculture minister Andy Mitchell. “The point is to make sure that the labels on products are accurate. But it is up to the House leader to decide what legislation is called for debate.”
Since it was approved in June by the House of Commons agriculture committee as a new blueprint for directing the CFIA, the bill has become controversial because of a last-minute addition to add dairy product labelling recommended by Dairy Farmers of Canada. The contentious clause states: “No person shall market an agricultural product that has a dairy term on the label if the agricultural product is intended to substitute for a dairy product.”
Although the intention to add such an amendment had been telegraphed months before, the actual wording was introduced and approved after public hearings had ended.
MPs from all parties said they simply were imposing truth in advertising and they unanimously added to the CFIA bill a requirement that no dairy substitute product be allowed on the market if there is a dairy term on its label.
Since then, the dairy processor and food manufacturer sectors have mounted a fierce and effective lobby against the provision, which must be approved by Parliament in the next few months before an election if it is to become law.
Opponents argue it will keep dairy substitute products off the market to the detriment of margarine, many frozen desserts and cheese-like products that do not contain cheese.
It has become a federal-provincial and an international issue.
At least three provinces – Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – have said they consider the proposed legislation a potential illegal impediment to interprovincial trade and Alberta is considering a challenge under trade rules.
In late September, the Americans weighed in against the dairy labelling idea, followed shortly by the Australians.
“Should this amendment be enacted, it would change the manner in which dairy products and their substitutes are defined and prohibit the marketing and sale of substitutes for dairy products if they include a dairy term on the label,” U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary J.D. Penn and chief U.S. agriculture trade negotiator Allen Johnson wrote in a Sept. 22 letter to the Canadian government.
“This will potentially affect numerous food products containing both dairy and non-dairy ingredients including margarine, processed cheese and frozen desserts.”
Meanwhile, Dairy Farmers of Canada is planning a campaign this autumn to see the amendment preserved.
