Lauren Comin, Seeds Canada regulatory affairs manager, sat down with Marc Zienkiewicz at the recent Seeds Canada Semi-Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ont., in late November, to talk about the major policy portfolios in front of Seeds Canada at the moment.
“We have the usual policy files, and then of course, we’re in this multi-year consultation with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency known as Seed Regulatory Modernization (SRM), which is one of the unique files that that we have until 2025,” she said.
“So I would say the biggest focus has been with SRM, and not just looking at the more minor changes we can make to the regulations, but asking how do we set up a system that is future-proof and allows us to have continuous improvement, so that we don’t have to keep doing these sort of large-scale project type reviews.
Comin explains that this forward-looking approach is the basis around the concept of the Independent Standards Setting Body, or ISSB, first unveiled back in July and designed to bring together stakeholders across the value chain to sit on an advisory body for the industry.
“It’s designed to ensure that we have that continuous dialogue at all times, not just during these large consultations, but to ensure that we can make those incremental improvements to our regulations when they’re needed and not, you know, five or 10 years too late.”
