Question Period Note: INTERPROVINCIAL TRADE OF FOOD

Q1 – How is food safety and compliance enforced in Canada and across provinces? Q2 – What is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency doing to address domestic trade? Q3 – How does the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act impact the interprovincial trade of food?

R.1 - Food businesses must also meet Health Canada’s requirements under the Food and Drug Regulations (which are enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for foods under federal oversight) which set safety requirements for food additives, food fortification, allergens, and nutritional labelling.
The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations allows the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to know who is trading food in Canada and gives its inspectorate powers to assess business compliance, inspect and sample food, and to take enforcement action (e.g. detaining food, suspending licences) when non-compliance with either the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations or Food and Drug Regulations is found.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working closely with provinces, territories and industry to uphold food safety while exploring ways to reduce trade barriers and improve the movement of food products across Canada without putting the health and safety of Canadians or our access to export markets at risk. R.2 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working with provinces and industry associations to identify ways to increase internal trade. The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations provides Canadian businesses with access to export markets. In 2024, Canada’s food exports were valued at $64.4 billion.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is enhancing its client services to provide tailored advice and guidance for businesses seeking to apply for a licence under the Safe Food for Canadians legislation.

To support of internal trade, while upholding food safety, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is advancing a slaughter service pilot to address regional gaps in federally licenced capacity. It is also proposing to exempt from federal oversight the interprovincial trade of lower-risk manufactured foods, such as bread, tea, and cookies – identified using a science-informed risk assessment – by using existing authorities under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. R.3 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is committed to supporting the Government of Canada’s priority to increase internal trade of food.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency supports the objectives of the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and is working in collaboration with the Provinces and Territories to identify actions that could increase internal trade of food without jeopardizing food safety or Canada’s access to exports markets.

The Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act was introduced to remove federal barriers to interprovincial trade. Under this Act, provincial and territorial requirements are deemed comparable to federal requirements when certain conditions are met. This includes advancing internal trade pilots to provide increased access to provincial slaughter facilities in underserved regions and enhancing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s services to provide small businesses with tailored advice that will help them navigate the federal licencing system and obtain a federal licence faster.

The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) apply to food that is prepared domestically for trade between provinces, imported or exported. These regulations set safety and consumer protection standards, including licensing, food safety preventive controls, and traceability, as well as quality standards such as labelling and grades, composition, and container sizes.

Together with the Food and Drugs Regulations, the SFCR set the requirements for food safety and trade, in alignment with applicable international standards set for food by Codex Alimentarius (Codex) and for animal health by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
The SFCR supports the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)’s mandate to protect Canadians from unsafe food and deception risks, ensuring that food meets consistent standards across the country, no matter where it was produced.
Businesses can be licensed both by their respective province and federally. However, only SFC licenced businesses may trade interprovincially, import or export food.
Work on internal trade has traditionally focused on trade in meat by provincially licensed businesses (many are small- and medium-sized enterprises), but it should be noted that 95% of meat traded in Canada (by volume) is produced under federal oversight and can therefore already move freely between provinces without restriction.
The CFIA continues to work in collaboration with industry and provincial and federal partners to facilitate trade and verify that the food Canadians buy and consume remains safe.
No province or territory has food safety rules that are comparable to the SFCR. Therefore, any actions to trade food outside the federal framework must ensure no unintended consequences that affect the health and safety of Canadians or impact Canada’s access to export markets.
In 2021 Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Agriculture directed officials to develop pilots to examine regulatory and non-regulatory barriers to domestic trade for meat. Following this direction, the CFIA committed to work on three pilots:
• The Lloydminster pilot ended successfully when the amendment to the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) was published in Canada Gazette, Part II in November 2024. These changes have made it possible for food producers in Alberta and Saskatchewan to trade safe foods into and within the city of Lloydminster.
• The CFIA is working with Ontario and Quebec on a Slaughter Service Pilot, which would allow Quebec cattle in a remote region of Quebec to be slaughtered and processed at a provincially-licensed abattoir in Ontario, with the meat returned to Quebec for sale under provincial oversight. This pilot is being developed by the CFIA, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA), and Quebec’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ). The CFIA, OMAFA and MAPAQ are working to accelerate this pilot.
• The Ontario Ready to Grow pilot is exploring the possibility of enabling a small set of Ontario licensed meat businesses to trade interprovincially while CFIA provides them with tailored advice to help them obtain their Safe Food for Canadians licence. To date, 2 companies have successfully received their SFC licence, and 2 companies are well on their way in the SFC licence have been working closely with the CFIA as a result of their licence application.

The CFIA has also been working the provinces and territories, as well as industry to identify food businesses that need more tailored advice and guidance to help them obtain a SFC licence.

The CFIA has also created the Making or Trading Food in Canada web page to bring together key guidance documents on federal requirements that apply to food businesses, including a toolkit for food businesses new to the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR). This guidance will be added to over time as specific issues are raised by small businesses and provincial governments.

On June 26, 2025, the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act (FTLMCA) received Royal Assent. Unless excepted from the Act, a good produced, used or distributed in accordance with a provincial or territorial requirements is considered to meet comparable federal requirements when conditions under the supporting regulations are met.

The CFIA supports the objectives of the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and is working in partnership with the provinces and territories to identify actions that could increase internal trade of food without jeopardizing food safety or Canada’s access to exports markets.

• The Government of Canada is committed to eliminating federal barriers to internal trade of food

• Preserving the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations as the basis for internal trade of food will ensure consumer health and safety and protect access to export markets worth over $64 billion annually.

• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working with the provinces and territories to address the need for more slaughter capacity in remote areas and to explore opportunities to facilitate trade of lower risk manufactured food within Canada.

• It has also enhanced its client services to help small businesses to understand its food safety requirements and get licenced faster.