Variety Registration Office (VRO) update: Model Operating Procedures for Recommending Committees (MOPs) Implementation

Transcription

1 Variety Registration Office (VRO) update: Model Operating Procedures for Recommending Committees (MOPs) Implementation Mark Forhan, Chief, VRO For CSTA Semi-Annual Meeting, Nov. 9th,2016 RDIMS v Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), all rights reserved. Use without permission is prohibited.

2 Quick Recap Variety Registration (VR) System in Canada under review by AAFC at request of Ag Minister. CFIA, CGC, AAFC working cooperatively; focus groups consultation, targetted stakeholder consultation, wider all-canada consultation. Spring 2015 Ag Minister announces 3 outcomes as result: A CFIA authored guidance document: The Model Operating Procedures for VR Regional Recommending Committees The bringing into effect of incorporation by reference and the use of this regulatory tool to Move Schedule III of Seeds Regulations out of the regulations into an administrative document (allow for simpler faster crop placement in VR). Reducing the three tier system to a two tier system for VR 2

3 Current Status on VR System Review Outcomes October 2015 election: new government MOPs was started by CFIA late in 2014 with a planned implementation for the 2017 crop year Plans for incorporation by reference and application to Schedule III (where crop kinds and Part I, II, III registrations are listed) will be rolled up and included in the planned Seeds Regulations Modernization Reduction of Parts of VR system will be addressed during the Seeds Regulations Modernization process 3

4 MOPs Document Highlights The MOPs was designed to ensure: A uniform understanding of the system, roles, responsibilities of all the parties involved (National standards) Good governance: full value chain stakeholder representation is present on RCs; groups are balance are defined. Structure is efficient. That an efficient system of merit assessment is developed balancing regulatory burden vs. innovation in developing new varieties That similar approaches to items such as use of foreign data, process for joining committees, committee appeals process, and MOPs non-compliance complaint process (the Registrar) are clearly defined. A clear and common understanding of the registration options available to the RCs and their expected use (e.g. normal/national registration, Contract registration) as well as restrictions on these types of registrations (regional restrictions and Interim registrations). 4

5 MOPs Update The final version (V2.0) of the MOPs was posted to our website in October of 2015: Result of two consultations with all recommending committees (RCs) in Canada and a wider value chain stakeholder consultation in the summer/early Fall of With release of MOPs the registration RCs were also given an implementation plan with a target completion for the 2017 crop year (each RC operating procedures to be MOPs compliant) Details of the plan were presented to RCs in Winter 2015/16 at their annual recommendation meetings 5

6 Fall 2016 update on MOPs Implementation Of the 13 RCs in Canada now, 11 are actively engaged in MOPs driven revisions of their operating procedures. Almost all of the RCs implemented changes in 2015 based on MOPs guidance and we continue to work with them for complete compliance for target date. CFIA triaged the work focusing on cereals in Canada and leaving rapeseed/canola to the last; others are in the middle, so to speak Currently we are well along with ON, Quebec, Atlantic Cereal committees and the PRCWRT (West). 6

7 2007 Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), all rights reserved. Use without permission is prohibited. 7