OTTAWA – Canada’s pedigreed seed industry is making plans to create a privately funded and controlled Canadian Seed Institute to take over many of the inspection, licensing and monitoring jobs traditionally done by government.
The proposal is causing controversy among seed growers, some of whom fear they will end up with a more costly system that delivers less.
“It’s controversial. There is opposition,” Bill Robertson of the Canadian Seed Growers Association said last week. “But there really is no alternative.”
Agriculture Canada is an enthusiastic supporter of the project, which could be operating by next year.
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“I think we can continue with a good effective, credible program while at the same time allowing our clients to gain control over their future costs,” Agriculture Canada’s Wayne Morris told a Commons agriculture committee hearing last week. “That’s what it is all about.”
Robertson said it is all about money. In late 1994, the government told the seed trade that as part of cost recovery, it wanted to raise user fees five-fold, from $1 million to $5 million annually.
“That’s what started it,” said the chief official for the seed growers’ lobby.
As planned now, the institute would be responsible for licensing seed cleaning operations, overseeing lab services and imports and conducting field inspections if need be.
Robertson said to keep the Canadian seed business credible with its customers, the federal government still would maintain standards through the Canadian Seed Act and through regulations that enforce standards.
“The delivery bridge would be done by the industry,” he said.
The alternative would be government-imposed higher fees that would make pedigreed seed more expensive and lead increasing numbers of Canadian farmers to re-seed from last year’s crop, rather than invest in new, better pedigreed seed, said Robertson.
