Canadian policy makers should cut red tape to make Canada’s food sector more innovative and robust, according to a Conference Board of Canada report released September 1.
“There is no quick fix to Canada’s system for governing food,” said Michael Bloom, who is the conference board’s vice-president of organizational effectiveness and learning.
“The problem is not so much in the actions being taken today but rather the cumulative weight of existing policies, laws and regulations and the motivations for them.”
Food is one of the Canadian economy’s most highly controlled and the number of government regulations has grown steadily through the years, according to the report.
Bloom, however, believes that many current regulations are outdated.
“Multiple levels of government are involved that sometimes act at cross-purposes to one another,” he said. “The system can be described as suffering from scope-creep.”
Modernizing policies, laws and regulations that oversee food production and dissemination in Canada is likely to be a key element in the Canadian Food Strategy, which the Centre for Food in Canada is set to produce by 2013.
Glen Korstrom
Twitter: GlenKorstrom