Instead, she argues, the information farmers 
rely on increasingly comes from regional variety 
trials, company testing, seed growers and retailers, 
and even fellow farmers, not necessarily from the 
regulatory process itself.
Meanwhile, competing countries continue 
accelerating genetic advancement with fewer 
regulatory hurdles.
“Our competitors are catching up,” she 
says. “Farmers today are more educated, more 
informed, have more access to data than they did 
when this system was devised. They don’t need us 
protecting them like back in the early 20th century 
when there was no quality control. What they 
need are better genetics, faster.” 
A Canadian Habit of Waiting
Jackson believes Canada has fallen into a danger­
ous pattern: playing the waiting game.
“We consider ourselves global leaders. We were 
fifth in exports. Now we’re seventh, projected to 
be ninth. That’s not leadership. That’s dwindling 
capacity,” he says. 
“We’ve got this Canadian way where every­
thing’s fine. But is it?”
He points to tariffs, shrinking breeding 
resources, increasing market demands and 
Canada’s declining export ranking as evidence 
that the status quo isn’t as comfortable as it 
appears.
His conclusion is blunt: “We need to ask 
ourselves why.” 
One reason the discussion is gaining traction 
is that stakeholders now have more data than ever, 
not just opinions.
At the Seeds Canada workshop in Saskatoon, 
participants overwhelmingly supported moving 
peas, lentils, flax, rye and triticale into Part III 
registration. For faba beans, it was acknowledged 
that low vicine/convicine was an important char­
acteristic and could be the sole merit criteria if 
faba beans were kept in Part I.
The room also unanimously agreed that any 
registered Canadian variety should still be:
•	 distinguishable and stable, 
•	 meet varietal purity requirements, and 
•	 be publicly listed. 
In other words, advocates aren’t arguing for 
eliminating oversight. They’re arguing for chang­
ing where the oversight occurs. 
Still, industry stakeholders have concerns 
about maintaining reliable performance data. 
SeCan Western Business Manager Todd Hyra 
warns that regional variety trials already face 
significant challenges in several provinces. He says 
a misconception exists that variety registration 
data is a duplication of regional variety trial data, 
when in fact most of the data that is presented in 
the provincial seed guides (other than yield and 
maybe limited quality data) is generated from 
variety registration trials.
Without strong regional trials, smaller breed­
ing programs could lose access to critical disease 
and quality information currently generated 
through cooperative systems, he says. 
From left to right:
Lorena Pahl serves as 
commercial product 
development manager 
at Limagrain Cereal 
Seeds.
Cory Solheim is the 
Saskatchewan Pulse 
Growers’ manager of 
strategic initiatives and 
policy.
Jeff Jackson, general 
manager for SeedNet, 
believes Canada has 
fallen into a dangerous 
pattern: playing the 
waiting game.
Wendy Jahn, national 
manager for the CFIA 
Seed Section, says 
the future of variety 
registration doesn’t 
have to be dictated by 
regulators.
SEPTEMBER 2026  SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA   11

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