Federal government officials say the national organic regulation will proceed as originally scheduled despite earlier reports that it would be delayed by as much as a year.
In June, two high-ranking members of the organic community said there was a good chance the regulation would be postponed.
Laura Telford, executive director of Canadian Organic Growers, and Matthew Holmes, managing director of the Organic Trade Association in Canada, said it looked like revisions to the national standard wouldn’t be ready until spring 2009.
Under that scenario the regulation would come into force six months before the revised standard was ready.
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They said the government was unwilling to implement a regulation to enforce the rules of the outdated existing standard that gave certification bodies unacceptable discretionary powers.
Holmes speculated the regulation could be pushed back a full year to ensure the two documents were in synch with one another.
Telford said the “nightmare scenario” for the organic sector would be that the federal government would use the delay as an excuse to avoid having to regulate the industry.
“We have pushed long and hard for this thing and to get this close and lose it would be really horrible,” she said.
But that isn’t going to happen.
Since the red flags were raised by the two industry officials, the government has been informed by the Canadian General Standards Board and the Standards Council of Canada that the standard revisions will be ready by November 2008, one month before the regulation is to take effect.
“That issue is no longer an issue,” said Michel Saumur, national manager of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Organic Office.
The upshot is the organic products regulations will be implemented Dec. 14, 2008, as originally scheduled.
But there could be some significant changes to the Canada organic logo enshrined in that regulation.
Prime minister Stephen Harper has announced the government intends to crack down on food labelled “product of Canada,” in an effort to ensure all or virtually all of the contents are truly Canadian.
Saumur said there could be “some misrepresentation” with the proposed logo, which can be used on imported as well as domestic products.
The regulation calls for the word “imported” or the words “product of” a specified country to be used in close proximity to the logo. But that might not be good enough for the government given the prime minister’s new order.
“Will the logo be changed? We’re still waiting for a ruling on that,” he said.
The CFIA could be forced to remove the word “Canada” and perhaps the maple leaf symbol from the organic logo, but Saumur stressed that until he hears otherwise, the logo remains intact.
