Question Period Note: INTERPROVINCIAL TRADE OF FOOD

Q1 - What specifically is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency doing to address domestic trade?

R1 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is increasing internal trade by working with provinces and industry to accelerate its existing pilot projects.

For example, in accelerating its Ready to Grow Pilot with Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has developed a model for providing tailored advice and guidance to provincially licensed companies trying to trade outside their home province. In spring 2025, it began working with 10 provincially licensed companies.

This approach is showing results. To date, 4 of the 10 businesses have applied for Safe Food for Canadians licences; 2 have obtained their licences and 2 more are on-
going. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is actively working with the remaining businesses.

Lessons learned from this initiative will serve to expand the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's enhanced advice and guidance model to other provinces.

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 Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licenced businesses may trade interprovincially, import or export food.
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
Lio dminster.

• The Ontario Ready to Grow pilot is enabling .1.Q Ontario-licensed meat businesses to trade interprovincially while the 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.

Outside of the pilots the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's tailored advice enabled a soy processing company in Ontario to receive its SFC licence several months earlier than planned, allowing it to trade interprovincially as well as export its product that is expected to generate millions in sales.

The CFIA j_§_working with 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 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 received Royal Assent. Unless excepted from the Act, a good produced, used or distributed in accordance with provincial or territorial requirements is considered to meet comparable federal requirements when conditions under the supporting regulations are met. The final regulations under the Act were published in late 2025 and create an exception in the Act to ensure it does not apply to:
• the Safe Food for Canadians Act and its regulations, and
• any part of the Food and Drugs Act Regulations

Businesses must continue to comply with all requirements under these acts and regulations.

• The Government of Canada is making it easier for Canadians to do business with each other from coast to coast to coast. This includes facilitating the internal trade of food.
• Maintaining 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 provinces and territories, and industry stakeholders to actively address barriers to internal trade.
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is providing tailored advice and guidance to small and medium-sized businesses to help them expand and trade throughout Canada.
• Additionally, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and is working on a regulatory amendment to address unmet needs in slaughter capacity in Canada.