SEPTEMBER 2018 GERMINATION.CA 25 ON CROPLIFE CANADA STAYING INDEPENDENT IN THE EVENT OF A MERGER: It’s not that CropLife is staying on the outside, they’re very much still a partner on the inside. They simply have more interests than just seed. ON WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM THE WHITE PAPER SLATED FOR THIS FALL: The green paper did a lot to explore various possibilities but didn’t have a lot of detail and wasn’t vetted by each organization’s members like the white paper will be. Once we get further into detail, you’ll see everyone around the table really having a great discussion. ON HOW THE CONCEPT OF TRAILING ROYALTY WILL BE RECEIVED: There’s a lot of work to do to finalize the implementation of such a royalty with the rest of the value chain, but our window for getting things through the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office and getting regulation changes implemented with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is after the next election. So the target is 2020 to implement this, so we need to do a lot of work in that time. The easy part is over, and the hard part, to get industry consensus, is yet to be done. ON WHETHER A MERGER OF OUR SEED ASSOCIATIONS WILL RESULT IN COST SAVINGS: I don’t believe it will get cheaper overall to run the entire seed sector. It might not save money but will be more effective. Things will be done faster and more efficiently, which can deliver savings in work that is being done by a number of organizations. There will be some cost savings on administration — currently there’s a lot of duplication that doesn’t need to exist. We look forward to a system that is more collaborative and streamlined. That’s a big benefit of this process. In the past we worked well and closely with CSTA, but we didn’t have a lot of interaction with the other four organizations. We’ve come to know each other’s mandates better and there have been occasions where an issue has arisen and instead of having different voices with various points of view, we’ve agreed that a specific organization should take the lead on that issue. That coordination might not have happened were it not for the Seed Synergy project. It’s been a great opportunity for us all to work together more effectively and I look forward to close collaboration and efficiencies moving forward. Pierre Petelle President & CEO, CropLife Canada ON CROPLIFE CANADA STAYING INDEPENDENT IN THE EVENT OF A MERGER: Morgan Webb President, Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada Rod Merryweather CEO, FP Genetics