The House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food met on November 3, 2025, to continue its study of the government’s regulatory reform initiative in agriculture and agri-food. Witnesses included Sylvain Charlebois (Professor, Dalhousie University and Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab), Serge Buy (Chief Executive Officer, Agri-Food Innovation Council), Ron Lemaire (President, Canadian Produce Marketing Association), Evan Fraser (Director, Arrell Food Institute, University of Guelph, as an individual), Jasmin Guénette and Juliette Nicolaÿ (Vice-President and Policy Analyst, Canadian Federation of Independent Business), and Connie Phillips (Executive Director, Alberta Beekeepers Commission).
Sylvain Charlebois stated that Canada’s agri-food competitiveness is strong relative to other G20 countries but flagged three concerns: using policy to build competitive advantages is ineffective, there is a lack of private capital investment, and infrastructure is in dire need of investment. He recommended the committee review taxation from farm gate to plate, noting that the GST holiday led to opportunistic pricing and that shrinkflation is causing more products to be taxed as snacks, while Statistics Canada underestimates inflation by not accounting for quantity changes.
Serge Buy acknowledged Canada’s robust regulatory system but said it faces challenges, including companies avoiding Canadian approval due to complexity and cost, and fragmented regulations across jurisdictions. He recommended introducing updated governance standards with regular reviews and burden reduction targets, and accelerating regulatory approval timelines by increasing reviewer capacity, leveraging AI-assisted risk screening, and recognizing approvals from trusted international jurisdictions, potentially through a national agricultural regulatory council.
Ron Lemaire supported the government’s red tape review and cited the CFIA’s recent omnibus regulatory package on labelling and grade standards as a successful example of collaboration, but warned that applying the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act too broadly could create new barriers to food safety and trade. He recommended excluding the Safe Food for Canadians Act from the new act, expanding joint reviews for crop protection products, and avoiding duplicative federal plastics registry requirements where provincial data already exists.
Evan Fraser, speaking as an individual, argued that innovation is key to capturing more value from Canadian agriculture and that regulatory reforms between provinces are needed, citing British Columbia’s rule requiring 50% local sourcing for food-processing facilities on agricultural land as a barrier. He recommended de-risking private investment in agri-food tech, which has slower returns than other sectors, and better aligning research councils like NSERC with industry needs to improve commercialization.
Jasmin Guénette and Juliette Nicolaÿ presented a CFIB report showing that nearly three out of five small and medium-sized enterprises say the regulatory burden from the CFIA has increased over the past five years, with poor customer service, inconsistent inspector guidance, and difficulty finding information on the agency’s website. They recommended implementing a two-for-one rule for new regulations, improving CFIA customer service with more ambitious service standards, and increasing transparency on performance.
Connie Phillips stated that regulatory agencies like the CFIA and PMRA do not consider the economic impact of their decisions, which is harming industry viability. She recommended immediate implementation of mandatory, importer-funded honey-adulteration testing with enforceable penalties, PMRA approval of varroa mite treatments using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, and a review of countries importing bees to Canada from outside North America, with a halt to such imports until new risk assessments are completed with industry input.
During the question period, members discussed the impact of the industrial carbon tax, plastics registry, and front-of-pack labelling on food costs, with Charlebois agreeing these policies add costs and noting Canada is the only G7 country with four consecutive months of rising food inflation. On the proposed national agricultural regulatory council, Charlebois expressed discomfort with adding another entity, while Buy clarified it would not be a new superstructure but a coordination body, and Lemaire suggested a model similar to the Canada-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council. The committee agreed to work together to find a former CFIA redress officer to testify, after John Barlow noted the CFIA had refused to allow one to appear.
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