Canada’s food system regulations, often maligned as a costly bureaucratic drag on industry, actually are a commercial boost for the food industry, says one of Canada’s most enthusiastic biotechnology boosters.
“I once thought they were an impediment,” John Cross, president of Saskatoon-based Philom Bios, told a Parliament Hill crowd of MPs, bureaucrats and lobbyists.
“But Canada’s regulatory system is a great competitive advantage.”
His company produces phosphate and nitrogen inoculants.
Cross was filled with praise, both for the government’s 20-year support for biotechnology and for the strident controls the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency apply before products are allowed on the market.
Read Also
Anti-separatist movement targets rural Alberta
Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s anti-separatism Alberta Forever Canada petition campaign expects to run full steam ahead into the province’s farming regions
Cross said that as Philom Bios tries to get its products into foreign markets, the fact that it has made it through the Canadian regulatory system gives those products a boost.
The world trusts Canada’s tests on toxicity and efficacy of products proposed for the market.
“It is instant credibility,” he said after his April 13 speech.
“Our regulatory system truly is a competitive advantage for business.”
He was reminded that the main din in Ottawa usually is that Canada’s regulatory regime is ineffective, cumbersome and too costly.
“I know it is an easy target, but I do not believe it is a cost,” said Cross.
“It is a gift.”
He said efforts to standardize Canadian rules with American rules is a further improvement in efforts to export.
An hour later, a more traditional view of Canada’s regulatory system was promoted elsewhere on Parliament Hill.
At the Senate agriculture committee, Canadian Federation of Agriculture Bob Friesen said a host of regulations and proposed regulations amount to a drag on farmers and a cost to the sector.
While farmers recognize the need for regulation, the farm leader said regulations have added tens of millions of dollars to the cost of farming.
He said newly proposed rules, including fallout from the recently negotiated international biosafety protocol or the new species at risk bill could increase the burden.
He estimated that for the hog industry alone, proposed new regulations to govern feed medication could cost $40 million.
