CGC commends Canadian Government budget commitments

The Canada Grains Council (CGC) commends the Government of Canada for commitments in Budget 2019 to build a regulatory framework that supports new agriculture technologies.

The CGC is also pleased to see the Government signal its intent to amend the Canada Grains Act.

“For Canada’s grain sector to succeed in increasingly competitive domestic and global markets, we must become world leaders in innovation, and we need a supportive regulatory system to do it,” explained Canada Grains Council President, Tyler Bjornson in a press release. “The budget commits the Government to release a regulatory roadmap that will contain the legislative and regulatory amendments needed to reform Canada’s Agri-Food regulatory systems. We are hopeful that this will result in a regulatory framework that is supportive of plant breeding innovation and crop input products and that is agile, predictable and moves at the speed of commerce.”

Budget 2019 also commits the Government to a review of the Canada Grains Act, recognizing the current Act has not been substantially updated in decades.

“The CGC supports the Government’s commitment to modernize the Canada Grain Act which is clearly outdated,” continued Bjornson. “We are hopeful that the review can be done expeditiously, recognizing broad agreement already exists on some of the most important reforms.”