BRIEF FROM THE CANADIAN
ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE ALLIANCE
A Strong and Growing Partnership with the Government of Canada
1.0 Context and Overview of the Ornamental Horticulture Industry
The Canadian Ornamental Horticulture Alliance (COHA) is the national
body representing the ornamental horticulture industry. It was recently
incorporated in 2008 by three founding members: The Canadian Nursery Lanscape
Association; Flowers Canada Growers Inc; and, La Fédération
interdisciplinaire de l’horticulture ornementale du Québec.
Through its member associations COHA represents 3600 ornamental
greenhouse growers (cut flowers, potted plants, bedding plants, etc.) and 3800
nursery farms, including turf farms and Christmas tree farms. COHA also
represents the wholesale and most of the retail components of our industry such
as garden centres, landscaping design and maintenance services, arborists and
environmental solutions.
The total economic contribution of the ornamental horticulture sector/industry
in 2007 was $14.5 billion. For that same year it provided 332,700 full-time
jobs to Canadians. This makes our sector the second largest production employer
in all of Canadian agriculture (after cattle ranch farmers).Ornamental crops
also have the highest value crop per hectare in Canadian agriculture. Bottom
line is that we are a much more important agricultural and economic sector than
most people think and it is incumbent in our view that Parliamentarians be the
first to acknowledge these facts and consequently help support the future
vitality of our indsutry in crucial moments such as in this pre-budgetary consultation
process.
With growth in real terms of 2.1 per cent a year (2002-2007)
ornamental horticulture can be seen as a growth sector as well as an economic opportunity.
This was indeed reiterated by a 2009 study conducted for COHA by management
consulting firm Deloitte&Touche LLP, which stated that “Canada’s
ornamental horticulture sector has a major economic impact in Canada and
significant potential to develop and expand”.
It is precisely this potential to develop and expand which is at
the heart of our strategic vision as an industry alliance. However, to move
ahead in this direction we need to identify the key drivers and success factors
that are related to the future growth of our industry. For the purposes of our
presentation, we will focus on those three recommendations that we deem
important for the Minister of Finance take into consideration as critical
enabling factors to leveraging a strong and growing partnership with the
Government of Canada.
2.0 The Government of Canada as a key strategic partner to the Canadian ornamental horticulture industry
On June 3, 2011, the Speech from the Throne reiterated continued
support for the agriculture sector in looking for ways to support innovation,
productivity and competitiveness. It is a well known fact that support for
science and technology is mainly driven by the federal government through its
research institutions and granting agencies. Key programs for our industry can
be found for example at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the National
Research Council (NRC), Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and
Environment Canada through its Sustainable Technology Development Fund.
However, the main Department that logically champions our industry
is Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. This past July the federal, provincial and
territorial Ministers of Agriculture produced what is called the Saint
Andrews Statement in the context of the Growing Forward 2 Framework towards creating an adaptable and profitable sector. This declaration clearly
underscores the importance that the future of an industry such as ornamental
horticulture is reliant on the premise that a “Continued partnership between
governments and industry will be key in positioning the sector to compete
profitably and sustainably in 2020.”
We wholeheartedly agree with the overarching principles of the
Statement that identifies that “Collaboration and partnership are key
factors in success”. Under Growing Forward 1, we already have
initiated two important collaborations under the Canada Agricultural Adaptation
Program and the Canadian Ornamental Horticulture Research and Innovation
Cluster. These two programs have helped our industry to attain a clear strategic
focus on market driven innovations.
It is in this context that we are formulating the following three
recommendations based on our partnership commitments and expectations with the
Government of Canada, and its key Departments and granting agencies.
3.0 Partnering on three key Recommendations
3.1 Recommendation 1
That the Canada Agricultural Adaptation (CAAP) Program be renewed
with our industry under the Growing Forward 2 Framework so as to allow for a
more sustained effort at branding and promoting Canadian ornamental
horticulture products and further educating Canadians on the benefits of ornamental
horticulture as a healthy way of life. This is logically in line with key
socio-demographic findings of the Deloitte and Touche report showing the
economic effects of this evolving trend line. ``Baby Boomers are approaching
retirement and are expected to spend between $7.8 Billion and $14.4 Billion
annually on gardening between 2011 and 2021.`` This is the main potential
market for our industry that should result in maximum direct benefits to our
economy with minimal external leakages.
In this context, we believe that a $1.5 million contribution for
the next round of financing of the CAAP Program should enable our industry to partner
so as to increase sales and develop stronger market shares of Canadian
ornamental horticulture products and services. This will be done as we grow our
markets internally in Canada and externally with our exports that will be
competing in an growing economic environment of freer trade zones.
3.2 Recommendation 2
That the Canadian Agricultural Science Cluster Initiative be
renewed in partnership with our industry so that funding of the Canadian
Ornamental Horticulture Research and Innovation Cluster be allowed to reach a new
level of $10 million.
Bold vision for our industry is perfectly in line with the stated
objectives of the Growing Forward 2 Saint Andrews Statement that to be
truly innovative our industry needs to be ‘A sector that continuously
develops and adopts new products and practices to remain competitive and
sustainable through: Sustained commitment to public research and development;
improved collaboration/partnerships among key institutions (governments,
universities and industry) and; increased private sector leadership and
investment’.
With the renewed and increased funding of our Research Cluster, our
partnership with the Government of Canada would enable more targeted
innovations to be developed through pan-Canadian industry collaborations with
universities and research centres. This would certainly bring stronger
collaborative ties with all interested stakeholders that could eventually lead
to the creation of the first ever Canada Research Chair in Ornamental
Horticulture. Enabling this unique initiative with the Canada Research
Chairs program would help strenghten our university/industry ties so that we would
also join in standing `` ..at the centre of a national strategy to make
Canada one of the world's top countries in research and development`` . The
‘brain gain’ benefits would come from Canada’s newly found capacity to train
and retain those world-class scientists that we desperately need to remain
competitive at the international level. This is how we would protect and grow
Canadian jobs and drive technological advancement in ornamental horticulture.
The greening of our economy is a much desired objective that is
creating many opportunities to develop new green technologies. Ornamental horticulture
is poised to become a major player in this area. Ornamental horticulture can
provide environmental solutions by the adoption of plant and tree based
technologies that can purify water and air and induce energy savings. It is our
vision to become the leaders in the creation of a formidable Green
Infrastructure in Canada. Indeed, a unique ornamental horticulture green
infrastructure based technology partnership could arise where industry
stakeholders, research institutions such as Vineland Research and Innovation
Centre, The National Research Council, The Networks of Centres of Excellence of
Canada, Canadian Universities and Sustainable Technology Development Canada
would join forces to lead the charge into the future of green ornamental
horticulture technologies With this kind of initiative our industry would be
aiming at creating new plant and tree based green technologies that would be in
line with the Growing Froward 2 principles of ``Competitiveness in
domestic and international markets; Adaptability and Sustainability for (our)
Industry; Innovation; and, Institutional and Physical Infrastructure.``
3.3 Recommendation 3
The Canadian ornamental horticulture industry is the only
agricultural sector that generates retail sales taxes. We estimate that on a
yearly basis the government receives $1 billion in retail sales taxes as a
result of our industry’s economic activity. By having a stronger and more
competitive ornamental horticulture industry, we sustain a virtuous circle of
reinvestment in government programs that encourage our industry partnerships
and initiatives that in turn create jobs and sustain innovation. A case in
point was the targeted home renovation tax credit program that included in its
definition the role of ornamental horticulture and as a result was very
successful in directly benefiting our industry.
Another commendable program by the Government of Canada is
certainly Canada Revenue Agency’s Scientific Research and Experimental
Development Tax Incentive Program (SR&ED). As an industry we can only add
our voice to those who support this program by emphasizing that it has served
Canadian industry well but that it is now in need of being re-examined and
revamped. We also agree that Canada needs to do more to encourage and enable
private sector companies to venture into critical areas of research and
development activities that can bring those innovations to market that are
truly Canadian in nature.
However, the SR&ED program is not perfect and we welcome the
creation of the expert panel called Review of Federal Support to Research
and Development which was initiated earlier this year and we look forward
to reading the recommendations that will be contained in the panel’s report due
to become public sometime in October 2011. Although our industry did not submit
a formal brief to this review panel, our position is very much in line with
that of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and we would encourage your
Committee to take into consideration the guiding principle of their brief to
the Panel which is to create a stronger innovation culture among Canadian
companies with the support and partnership of the Government of Canada.
4.0 Conclusion
The Canadian Ornamental Horticulture Alliance hopes that these
brief recommendations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance
have proven to be useful in allowing for a better understanding of our industry
and of our vision of a strong leadership position for Canada in this sector. As
indicated in our opening remarks Canada’s ornamental horticulture sector has a
major economic impact and significant potential to develop and expand. It is
our strong view that we can leverage this great opportunity by creating the
right combination of stakeholder partnerships in the process and we know that a
strong a growing partnership with the Government of Canada is the main key to
our success.