CFA’s recommendations for the regulatory modernization and red tape reduction consultation include:
- Make agriculture a regulatory priority – Amend the Cabinet Directive on Regulation to reflect the competitiveness and food security interests of producers, streamline stakeholder consultations, and encourage regulatory innovation through sandboxes.
- Address critical shortages – Enable faster approval of feed additives, pest control products, and veterinary medicines by recognizing trusted international approvals to reduce barriers and improve access.
- Strengthen trade and transportation – Ensure meat and seafood facilities meet national food safety standards, harmonize trucking rules across provinces, follow through on rail reform (MRE, penalties, transparency, interswitching), and modernize phytosanitary and food safety regulations to reduce costs and delays.
- Modernize plant, animal, and environmental oversight – Update compensation for animal disease culls, align organic standards with the U.S., reduce duplicative environmental reporting, and expand shellfish sanitation capacity to support sector growth