Re: Local MP’s bill defeated, February 10
Despite Mr. Atamanenko’s comments, the farm community — particularly Canadian grains and oilseeds farmers — were strongly opposed to this bill.
Our government listened to farmers and acted on their concerns by voting against Bill C-474 that would have slowed innovation, and impeded farmer access to the new technology they need to grow more at a lower cost.
Canola Council of Canada president JoAnne Buth said, “Parliamentarians made the right decision on C-474.”
Bill C-474 would have introduced non-science based criteria to the seed approval process, interfering with a key principle of Canada’s regulatory system, she added.
Barry Senft of the Grain Farmers of Ontario, representing Ontario’s 28,000 growers of corn, soybean and wheat, said the bill would bring “subjectivity” and “uncertainty” into the registration process.
“The defeat of this bill means we will continue to have access to new technologies that will contribute to the profitability and sustainability of our farms,” said Kevin Bender, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
“The changes proposed in Bill C-474 would have only added ambiguity and uncertainty to our seed system with the end result being a loss of innovation and competitiveness for farmers,” said Ed Schafer, president of the Canadian Canola Growers Association, representing more than 50,000 Canadian canola farmers.
Our government always puts farmers, and sound science first and that is why we stood with farmers in voting down this bill.
Gerry Ritz, Federal Minister of Agriculture