PM Unveils Labelling Plan to Clearly Identify Canadian Foods

Good afternoon. First of all, thank you, Gerry, for that kind introduction and for all the efforts that you and your department have made to make today's announcement possible. Greetings to Dean Allison, your Member of Parliament here in Niagara West-Glanbrook, and also to Rick Dykstra, the Member of Parliament for nearby St. Catharines. I want to thank both of you for the hard work that you do every day on behalf of your constituents and all the people of Ontario. We do appreciate it. Welcome also to Tim Hudak. I know Tim is here. He's the Provincial Member for Niagara West-Glanbrook.

Thanks for coming. Of course, last but not least, I certainly want to give a big thanks to Tom Moyer and his family and the folks here at Cherry Avenue Farms for hosting us today. We do appreciate it.

Ladies and gentlemen, as the Minister mentioned, our government is undertaking a range of measures to bring Canada's consumer product regulation into the modern era. Legislation has been tabled in Parliament and money provided in Budget 2008 to ensure we maintain world-leading standards of quality and safety in the Canadian marketplace. Today I want to talk about one aspect of these efforts on a subject that has recently received some attention, and that's produce labelling.

In grocery stores across this country, the shelves are stacked with foods that say "Product of Canada" or "Made in Canada". Most shoppers assume, as they should, that products marked this way are grown in Canada, processed in Canada and packaged in Canada by Canadian farmers and producers, but this is not in fact the case. The use of these labels is governed by guidelines that were established in the 1980s and have not been updated since. Meanwhile, the way food is produced and consumed has changed a lot in the past quarter century. In today's world, products make their way onto our grocery store shelves from every corner of the earth, and the truth is, foods marked "Product of Canada" or "Made in Canada" actually may not be very Canadian at all. For example, a bottle of apple juice could have a "Made in Canada" label on it and be made from apples grown in China. A bar of chocolate might say "Product of Canada" but the cocoa beans could come from the Ivory Coast. You might even find a Canadian label on a box of frozen salmon from Russia. Under current Canadian law, there is nothing wrong with these practices. As long as 51 per cent of the production costs were incurred in Canada and the last substantial transformation of the product occurred in Canada, it is legal to call it "Made in Canada" or "Product of Canada," but clearly, that is not what consumers think it is, and that is not good enough for Canadians or for this government. That's why it's time to tighten up the definition so Canadians know exactly what they're getting and get exactly what they want.

Our new guidelines are designed to update and redefine Canadian food content labels to better reflect the true origins of products in today's global marketplace. Under our new rules, if something in the grocery store is marked "Product of Canada," it must mean all or virtually all the contents are Canadian.  All the apples in the juice will come from Canadian farmers like Tom, the cod and the fish sticks will come from Canadian waters, and all the milk in the ice cream will come from Canadian dairy cows.

Meanwhile, the "Made in Canada" label will mean in the future that the product has been manufactured or processed here. It can still include non-Canadian contents, but the label must make this clear by saying, for example, "Made in Canada with imported ingredients." This qualified "Made in Canada" label will let shoppers know they are supporting Canadian jobs and the Canadian economy, but also inform them that not all of the contents necessarily come from Canada.

Today's announcement is just one part of the food and consumer safety action plan that I announced in December with Minister Ritz and Minister Clement. The action plan contains a comprehensive set of new measures aimed at establishing tougher regulation of food, health and consumer products. It includes cracking down on negligent manufacturers, importers and retailers who knowingly endanger their customers, a new power for the federal government to order recalls of unsafe consumer products, dramatically increased fines for violations, and as we've heard today, giving better and more accurate information to consumers.

Thank you very much.

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