AGRI Committee Report

Dissenting Opinion of the Conservative Party of Canada

While all members agree that changes to the current product of Canada policy guidelines are necessary, several of the recommendations in the Committee’s Report do not represent our views nor the views of the many witnesses that appeared during the course of our study. To ensure the views of these many witnesses are properly represented, we hereby submit this Dissenting Opinion.

Recommendation 1:

Throughout the course of the study, numerous witnesses expressed their support for a Product of Canada label based on content rather than cost. Many witnesses also recommended that a high standard be developed when determining the appropriate level of Canadian content required to be labelled a Product of Canada. While we do agree with the Committee’s recommendation that Product of Canada be based on content and not cost, we believe the guideline should read “all or nearly all” Canadian content.  This is consistent with the approach of some of our key trading partners, notably the US, Australia and European Union.

Recommendation 2:

The committee’s recommendation that “Made in Canada” be prohibited to be used on food products contradicts all the evidence presented at Committee by the witnesses who appeared. Throughout the hearings, no witnesses called for this prohibition. Instead, witnesses testified that the “Made in Canada” label is an international standard respected around the world. Thus, this Dissenting Opinion recommends that the “Made in Canada” label be reserved for products in which the last transformation occurred in Canada and that it be qualified with statements like “Made in Canada from domestic and imported ingredients" or "Made in Canada from imported ingredients" in order to provide the information and clarity that consumers are seeking.

Further, maintaining the “Made in Canada” label is also important since consumers also appreciate supporting local contributions to processing and manufacturing jobs in their communities. This also supports the longstanding commitment by the Government of Canada to promote Canadian jobs and the Canadian economy.

Recommendation #4 – Canada Organic:

We also wish to note that the recently developed Canada Organic logo has a tremendous amount of support amongst industry stakeholders. Industry has contributed a considerable amount of time and resources to arrive at the current logo and any thoughts of changes must take that into consideration as well as be a part of a separate consultative process on the development of Organic Standards.