Agriculture committee  Yes, four months.

Agriculture committee  We need to reinstate it and we need to reinforce it. As I mentioned in my talk, we need to put it into the regulation that this office exists. The organic sector is unique in Canada. To have that office and pull it away from an international context is a very retrogressive step.

Agriculture committee  Yes. We export a lot of organic food. They have a very robust penalty and fine system, plus they have a five-year hiatus from the time you lose your ticket to getting a new one. If you're out of business for five years in organic industry, that means you're out of the organic industry.

Agriculture committee  It happened so suddenly that no one noticed it until recently. We got a document in Pro-Cert that would give us accreditation to certify in Korea, for instance, to the COR. The bottom was signed by no one with an organic title. Then the rumours got out that this thing had just been suddenly done without any kind of consultation.

Agriculture committee  Basically, what can happen in Canada now under the OPR and under the proposed safe food for Canadians regulations is that if, in fact, your certification is cancelled by a certifying body, and that does happen, you can immediately move to another certifier and reapply within days, or you can do it during the process of cancellation.

Agriculture committee  I can summarize it, if you want, in one minute.

Agriculture committee  That's another example. The U.S. NOP has robust penalties and fines, and it has a five-year revocation period. The biggest concern, I think—and I'm ad libbing—is the demise of the Canada organic office, which is now under way. The COO, although underfunded and staffed, was a highly effective and internationally recognized administrative body that was equivalent to the USDA national organic program office.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Tia. My name is J. Wallace Hamm, and I am the founder of Pro-Cert Organic Systems, a pan-Canadian organic certifier in its 27th year. I'm also a grain farmer in Saskatchewan, though it's not in the script. Canada's organic industry is flourishing despite the fact that its eight-year-old Canada organic regime, or COR, is in need of a major overhaul.