Statement from the Honourable Kody Blois, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Rural Economic Development

As Canada's new Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Rural Economic Development, ensuring the resilience of our agriculture sector and enabling a competitive advantage and level playing field for Canadian agricultural products are among my top priorities.

To support these priorities, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is working to remove unnecessary red tape and burden and ensure that our processes and regulations continue to enable prosperity for our agriculture producers, agri-food businesses, and communities across Canada. These measures include:

• Speeding up product approvals to provide alternatives to U.S.-sourced animal feed.
  This measure will alleviate the burden of tariffs on animal feed producers, by increasing the number of approved feed ingredients from within Canada or from other countries. The CFIA will work with industry to understand prioritization needs and provide new guidance to facilitate the pre-market evaluation process for the approval or registration of some feed products that are already authorized by a trusted foreign regulator. Together, these measures will enable quicker access to alternative feeds, reduce costs to farmers in the short-term, and support future supply chain sustainability for Canadian producers for years to come.

• Aiming to harmonize our bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) enhanced feed ban with U.S. requirements. Globally, the incidence of BSE has declined significantly and in 2021, the World Organisation for Animal Health recognized Canada as a country with negligible risk for BSE. Currently, differences between Canadian and U.S. requirements put our beef industry at a competitive disadvantage to its U.S. counterparts. We are working with industry on options to reduce unnecessary costs and improve competitiveness while continuing to protect animal health and maintain Canada's international trade access.