Seed regulatory modernization

We are currently seeking to engage with Indigenous communities and Nations to understand their perspectives and priorities. Consult Seeking Indigenous engagement on the modernization of the Seeds Regulations to learn more.

The scope of seed regulatory modernization will focus on seeds other than seed potato, seed potatoes, variety registration and registered establishments that prepare seed and licensing of operators of the Seeds Regulations.

On this page

Why we have the Seeds Act and Seeds Regulations

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for administering and enforcing the Seeds Act and Seeds Regulations. The main purpose of the Seeds Act and Seeds Regulations is to protect producers and consumers from misrepresentation, prevent the use of low quality seed and to create a level playing field for companies and individuals involved in seed production.

Purpose of the seed regulatory modernization

The Seeds Act and Seeds Regulations have undergone periodic amendments and modernizations since the first laws were established in 1905. The CFIA is committed to a full-scale review of the following parts of the Seeds Regulations:

  • Part I – Seeds other than Seed Potatoes
  • Part II – Seed Potatoes
  • Part III – Variety Registration, and
  • Part IV – Registration of Establishments that Prepare Seed and Licensing of Operators of the Seeds Regulations

During this initiative, the CFIA is looking to update the Seeds Regulations to:

  • improve responsiveness and consistency
  • reduce complexity
  • become adaptable and flexible to address future technical advances and scientific innovation
  • protect producers and consumers by strengthening existing requirements

Further information on Canada's current seed regulatory framework is available and based on 3 separate reports prepared by Synthesis Agri-Food Network developed under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Value Chain Roundtables to support the seed regulatory modernization process

  • Seed regulatory modernization: Executive summary
  • Canada's seed regulatory framework: A primer for seed regulatory modernization
  • Looking ahead: Trends and forces impacting the future of the seed industry

To receive a copy of these reports, contact cfia.seedregmod-modregsem.acia@inspection.gc.ca.

See the CFIA's Forward Regulatory Plan for anticipated timelines for publication in Canada Gazette.

Initiatives outside of the scope for this modernization

These initiatives are outside of the scope of the modernization full-scale review of Parts I, II, III and IV in the Seeds Regulations.

Value creation

The CFIA in cooperation with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, conducted joint consultations with the grains sector on royalty collection models, enabled by plant breeders' rights, to stimulate greater investment and competitiveness in cereal breeding.

Plant breeding innovation

The CFIA is continuously working to provide additional clarity on the regulatory approach to plant breeding innovations and adapt to advances in technology. In May of 2023, the CFIA updated guidance for determining whether seed is novel. Similarly, in 2022 Health Canada updated its guidance for novel foods derived through plant breeding innovations. The CFIA's work to update guidance for novel feeds is ongoing. Together with AAFC and Health Canada, the CFIA is working with stakeholder groups to implement transparency initiatives that will support the competitiveness of Canada's agri-food sector.

Potato and seed requirements

The requirements for seed and seed potatoes that are established under the Plant Protection Act and Plant Protection Regulations are outside the scope of this modernization. Examples of these include: phytosanitary requirements for the export, import and domestic movement of seeds and seed potatoes to prevent the introduction and spread of regulated pests, etc.

Ministerial exemptions for potatoes (excluding seeds) are covered by the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations under the Safe Food for Canadians Act and are outside the scope of this modernization.

Working groups and task teams

The purpose of the seed regulatory modernizaton working groups under the AAFC's Value Chain Roundtables is to provide a collaborative approach where government and impacted seed/seed potato stakeholders collaborate in the co-development of proposed options to provide recommendations to the CFIA for amending the Seeds Regulations.

Working group members include:

  • producer groups
  • seed industry
  • seed potato industry
  • public breeders
  • commodity/value chain associations
  • other/special interest groups

There are 2 separate working groups that have been established during the process to cover Parts I, II, III, IV of the Seeds Regulations.

Seed working group and task teams

The seed regulatory modernization working group was established to collaborate with the CFIA on Parts I, III, IV of the Seeds Regulations during the modernization process.

The working group has developed the following 3 main principles to guide discussions:

Agility

Regulations are agile, subject to continuous improvement, simple to understand, and flexible, when needed, enabling compliance of the regulated community and the protection and advancement of the public interest.

Fairness

Regulations that are widely accepted as fair, and support a transparent, diverse, and resilient seed system that provides quality assured seed for agricultural and other stakeholders.

Rationality

Regulations that protect and advance the public interest, justified by a clear rationale in terms of protecting the health, livelihoods, safety, security, social and economic well-being of Canadians and the environment.

The working group was supported by task teams which met to discuss all seed topics in-depth and make recommendations to the CFIA and the working group. The working group provided input on the number of task teams and specific task team topics. Seed task teams had balanced producer, commodity/value chain and seed industry stakeholder member representation and were responsible for conducting an in-depth review of specific topics. Consult a summary of each seed task teams' final report:

To receive a copy of the full final reports, contact cfia.seedregmod-modregsem.acia@inspection.gc.ca.

Seed potato working group and task teams

The seed potato regulatory modernization working group was established to collaborate with the CFIA on Part II and seed potato specific sections of Part III of the Seeds Regulations during the modernization process.

The working group is supported by the work of task teams which meet to discuss topics in depth and make recommendations to the CFIA and the working group.

The seed potato task teams are:

  • Certification
  • Variety registration
  • Grading
  • Movement
  • Field inspection
  • Traceability
  • Import-export
  • Testing requirements

Consultation and engagement activities

The CFIA is planning consultation activities to engage stakeholders throughout the seed regulatory modernization process. The information collected will provide insight for the CFIA while updating the Seeds Regulations.

The CFIA encourages all stakeholders to participate in these consultations to provide feedback. There have been a number of engagement and consultation activities to date during the seed regulatory modernization process.

Joint activities for seed and seed potato, including Indigenous engagement

Timeline of key activities

Needs assessment survey consultation

The needs assessment survey was the first consultation early in the seed regulatory modernization process for both seed and seed potato. The information collected established a baseline understanding of stakeholder needs. This survey provided insight from stakeholders on the following questions:

  • what are the benefits of the current seed and seed potato regulatory framework and systems
  • are there opportunities for change and what issues need to be addressed
  • what is the comfort with further industry delivery of regulatory services

Consult the What we heard report to read the feedback from 709 respondents for seed-specific topics and from 179 respondents for seed potato-specific topics.

Indigenous engagement

The CFIA is Seeking Indigenous engagement on the modernization of the Seeds Regulations to understand their perspectives and priorities.

To facilitate this, we undertook an extensive review of publicly available information to identify Indigenous communities and Nations involved in crop farming, seed growing and seed saving activities. This process identified 111 Indigenous communities and Nations, who were contacted directly in January 2025 with an invitation to participate. However, all Indigenous communities and Nations are welcome to participate.

We will be in touch with each community or Nation that expresses interest to acknowledge their participation. Based on information received, a plan to engage with interested Indigenous communities or Nations will be developed with their input.

Activities for seed

Timeline of key activities
  • Fall 2020: Initiation of the seed working group
  • Spring 2021: Initiation of the variety registration, seed certification, and grade tables and seed standards task teams
  • Fall 2021: Initiation of a common ground document for the working group to develop principles to guide discussions
  • Spring 2022: Initiation of seed testing and common seed task teams
  • December 2022: Finalization of the common ground document to develop the 3 principles to guide discussions
  • December 2022 to January 2023: Presentation to the seed working group on the format of the winter 2023 consultation and opportunity for working group members to provide CFIA with feedback on the survey
  • February 2023 to April 2023: Winter 2023 consultation
  • February 2023: Publication of the executive summaries from the following task teams:
    • Variety registration
    • Seed standards and grade tables
    • Seed certification
  • Winter 2023: Initiation of the import and export task teams
  • April – September 2023: Presentation of proposals by working group members on the following:
    • Independent seed standard body concept
    • Main administrator
    • Digital single window
    • Variety certification eligibility (Form 300)
    • Multi-stakeholder advisory committee
  • May 2023: Presentation and discussion on the benchmarking analysis by JRG Consulting Group with the working group
  • Fall 2023:
  • Fall 2023: Initiation of the information (includes records and labelling) task team
  • January 2024: Presentation to the working group on the winter 2024 consultation and opportunity for working group members to provide CFIA with feedback on the survey
  • February 2024 to April 2024: Winter 2024 consultation
  • February 2024: Publication of the executive summaries from the following task teams:
    • Seed testing
    • Common seed
    • Exports
    • Imports
  • Fall 2024:

Winter 2023 consultation and update for seed crops

The winter 2023 consultation and update for seed crops was the first update and consultation based on the recommendations from the following seed task teams final reports:

  • Variety registration
  • Seed standards and grade tables
  • Seed certification

The consultation provided an update to stakeholders on discussions to date and provided an opportunity to obtain stakeholder feedback on their level of support for certain task team recommendations. Stakeholder feedback was collected on the following seed regulatory lifecycle stages:

  • Variety registration
  • Seed crop certification
  • Harvesting, cleaning and conditioning of seed
  • Sampling, testing and grading of seed

Consult the What we heard report to read a summary of the feedback from 315 respondents.

Winter 2024 consultation and update for seed crops

The winter 2024 consultation and update for seed crops was the second update and consultation based on the recommendations from the following seed task teams which have completed their final reports:

  • Variety registration
  • Seed testing
  • Common seed
  • Exports
  • Imports

There were no updates from the seed certification and seed standards and grade tables task teams for this consultation nor were there any updates available from the information task team (includes records and labelling) because task team discussions were ongoing. The last task team was completed in spring 2024 after this consultation.

In addition to the task team updates and recommendations, proposals from individual working group organizations were put forward for consideration during the seed regulatory modernization process. The working group did not vote on proposals forwarded by individual organizations.

The consultation provided an update to stakeholders on discussions to date and provided an opportunity to obtain stakeholder feedback on their level of support for certain task team recommendations and proposals brought forward to the working group. Stakeholder feedback was collected on the following seed regulatory lifecycle stages:

  • Variety registration
  • Sampling, testing and grading of seed
  • Sale, import and/or export of seed

In addition to the lifecycle stages, stakeholder feedback was collected on the following proposals brought forward to the working group:

  • Establishment of an advisory committee and its role in standard setting, including crop varietal purity standards
  • Establishment of a digital end-to-end seed certification information management system
  • Establishment of an alternative service delivery arrangement with the Canadian Seed Growers' Association for certain seed certification tasks currently done by the CFIA

Consult the What we heard report to read a summary of the feedback from 412 respondents.

Activities for seed potato

The CFIA attended the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada's annual general meeting in March 2023 and the Canadian Potato Council meeting in July 2023 providing progress updates from ongoing task teams and discussing next steps related to consultations and opportunities to review and comment on proposed regulations published in Part I of the Canada Gazette before they become official. Several in-person national and regional meetings with the Canadian potato sector throughout 2023 and 2024 are planned as the modernization process advances. Task team recommendations for variety registration, grading, and traceability are expected by winter 2023. The remainder of the task teams (lab testing and testing requirements, import/ export, field inspection, and movement) will commence in winter 2023 and extend into 2024. The CFIA will be seeking comments from a wide cross-section of stakeholders including producers and industry associations, seed potato growers and breeders, the general public, provincial/territorial governments and First Nations.

Next steps

The next steps and target dates for key activities:

  • Winter 2025: Initiate engagement with Indigenous communities and Nations
  • Winter 2025: CFIA attends stakeholder meetings to initiate discussions on policy paper positions
  • Spring 2025: Publish a policy paper outlining CFIA direction on the Seed Regulations
  • Summer 2025: Stakeholder feedback on policy paper direction
  • Fall 2025: Publication of the What we heard report on policy paper direction
  • Winter 2026: Publication of draft amendments to the Seeds Regulations in Canada Gazette, Part I for comment

More information

Seed

To receive a copy of the Benchmarking analysis of some international seed systems prepared by JRG Consulting Group, email us at cfia.seedregmod-modregsem.acia@inspection.gc.ca.

Seed potato

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding seeds or seed potatoes, email us at cfia.seedregmod-modregsem.acia@inspection.gc.ca.

Date modified: