b'At a time when a lot of committees struggle to find WHO MAKES UP CANADAS PBRmembers, we were happy last year to have the opposite ADVISORY COMMITTEE IN 2023 problem. We had over 60 applications for membership, all of them high quality people. Its become a type of com-Keith Degenhardt, Western Grains Research Foundationmittee people want to sit in on, because they know their Rob Graf, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canadaadvice will be valued and lead to real change. Deb Hart, Canadian Potato Council (Chair) The committee is made up of a diverse group of stakeholders working in the grain sector, horticulture, life Brad Rooney, Scotts Miracle-Gro Canadascience, plant breeding, seed processing, the regulatory Erin Wallich, Summerland Varieties Corp.sphere and beyond.Ana Badea, Agriculture and Agri-Food CanadaThe committee was originally formed by the federal government in the early 1990s. However, in 2015 a new Alison Coleman, Corteva Agriscience committee was appointed to help guide officials in imple-Lauren Comin, Seeds Canadamenting UPOV 91. Of course, it was after Canada ratified Lana Culley, Aurora CannabisUPOV 91 that the hard work began to raise Canadas global stature in the IP sphere, Parker notes.Michael Dossett, BC Berry Cultivar DevelopmentWhen Kofi Agblor sat on the advisory committee Bryan Gerard, JoMar Seeds Inc.beginning in 2015, he and other committee members were Valerio Hoyos-Villegas, McGill Universitytasked with helping implement the act and begin to use it Lori Oatway, Oatways Seed Farmto make Canada a greater player on the world IP stage. At the time, Agblor was managing director of the Crop Jodi Souter, J4 Agri-Science/University of British ColumbiaDevelopment Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. Steve Tomtene, Tomtene Seed FarmHes currently program director for the Field Crop AWB_Germination-Jan2023.pdf 1 2022-12-15 9:27:35 AM Development Centre at Olds College in Alberta.He says increasing deregulation in the crop science arena means competition is becoming fiercer, and Canada has to continue to position itself as a place worth invest-ing in and bringing new technology tosomething the advisory committees members are keenly attuned to.Many entities are breeding crops for the sole purpose of bringing them into Canada, when able to. Depending on the crop kind, Canada may be the most favourable environment for those products, and we need to ensure Canada is able to accept those innovations and provide them to producers, Agblor says. C We are going to be seeing a lot more of that from the M ornamental, fruit and vegetables and field crops segments. Y The challenge will be continuing to have that operating CM environment that allows for the introduction of those vari-eties into the country, which makes for a more competi-MY tive environment because the domestic developers have CY to be at the top of their game, Agblor says. CMY That increased competition also means Canada must K create an environment that incentivizes those develop-ers to come into Canada, because the lead beneficiary is actually the Canadian entrepreneur, the farmer, input sup-pliers and the entire value chain, Agblor adds. Thats where the PBR Advisory Committee comes into play; its made up of people who work in the industry and know what government needs to do to enable that innovation. 24GERMINATION.CAMARCH 2023'