Good afternoon. I'm Doug Chorney, president of Manitoba's Keystone Agricultural Producers. I'm pleased to have an opportunity to speak to you today about Bill C-18, the agricultural growth act. While I recognize that this bill improves and modernizes nine existing acts, it's the changes to the Plant Breeders' Rights Act that have received the most attention from farmers in Manitoba. I would like to focus primarily on this act.
The changes to the act will bring Canada into compliance with UPOV 91, the international agreement for protecting intellectual property of plant breeders. It is anticipated that this will pave the way for increased investment in crop variety development. Manitoba farmers recognize the need to remain competitive on the global stage, and accessing new and improved crop technologies is critical to achieving this.
I would like to use the current example of the need for new variety developments. Our cereal crops that have been hit hard by fusarium this season. Fusarium head blight is a disease that has affected nearly 100% of our winter wheat fields. Financial losses due to yield reduction, cost of fungicide application, and downgrading in quality have been very significant, primarily because we don't have access to fusarium-resistant varieties. It has been a reoccurring problem over the past 20 years, since the disease first moved into our region. Manitoba has the highest rate of fusarium on the Prairies because of our moisture conditions.
We anticipate that the changes to the Plant Breeders' Rights Act will create a better climate for investment and research, one that can be more responsive to farmers' needs so that high-performing fusarium-resistant varieties will finally come to the marketplace. I would like to highlight how investment and research made it possible to grow soybeans on the Canadian prairies. Soybean production in Manitoba has grown from 100,000 acres in 2005 to 1.3 million acres in 2014, making it the third largest crop in Manitoba even as it creates new opportunities for our industry.
Keystone Agricultural Producers realizes that the changes to the act are meant to ensure that plant breeders receive the compensation they deserve from all users of their patented varieties through more diligent collection of royalties. I want to stress that we recognize the need for these changes. However, it is important that the Government of Canada and the plant breeders' rights office recognize that there is still considerable concern and unease among farmers and that more work must be done to assure them that there will be a net benefit to their operations.
Many questions have been raised about the possible introduction of end point royalties to Canada as a result of Bill C-18. We know that end point royalties are not a foregone conclusion, but we need to ensure that if they are adopted, the collection process is transparent and fair.
We also know that farmers' ability to save seed is enshrined in this legislation, but some farmers need further clarification and assurances.
We are concerned about the competition between established seed technology companies and smaller plant breeders or new market entrants, and whether this could adversely affect farmers. If a breeder builds novel traits into an existing protected variety, the commissioner of plant breeders' rights should be diligent in ensuring that fair compensation is negotiated between rights holders so that new varieties can be introduced to the marketplace and be accessible to farmers.
Overall, there are outstanding concerns on how the legislation, through its regulations, will affect farm-level costs. It is critically important that farmers are consulted during this regulation development process so that we can ensure that interests are safeguarded. We want to ensure that regulations will be developed in a way that is reasonable for all parties.
Before my time is up, I'd like to address another component of Bill C-18. I want to speak in favour of the proposed changes to the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act. They will make the advance payments program more accessible and responsible to farmers' needs. As weather-related incidents and volatile markets become the norm rather than the exception, this loan program has become an increasingly important component of farm management. It provides advances for improved farm cashflow, which allows farmers to extract profitability from the marketplace. What I do ask, however, is that the interest-free portion of the advance be increased from $100,000 to $400,000, and the maximum limit be raised from $400,000 to $800,000 to reflect farm size changes.
I'll wrap up now, as I believe I'm running out of time.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I welcome any questions you might have.