Thank you very much, Minister, for being here.
I'd like a comment from you. My office received 500 e-mails today in regard to food inspection, and I'd just like to read a couple of excerpts from an e-mail. I think it's standard. It says, “I object to the idea of giving food companies more self-policing powers when it comes to safety. Please urge the minister to provide the Canadian Food Inspection Agency with adequate resources to ensure all food products--Canadian and imported--are safe to eat. We need to request from the industry to establish better policies that respect regulations and standards related to the safety and nutritional quality of food in Canada”, and so on.
I just wanted you to know that we're getting these e-mails. People are concerned.
My second point is very brief. You mentioned the WTO. I would just like to know how we can stay in negotiations and ensure that our dairy farmers don't lose $70,000 per farm, as they told us last week, if we cave in to some of the demands. Also, how can we ensure that we still protect our Canadian Wheat Board, given the pressures coming from the WTO?
I want to zero in, Minister, on slaughterhouses. There is $50 million in the budget for slaughterhouses. There seems to be, according to an article in The Western Producer on February 5, some difference of opinion. I quote a financial official at an off-the-record budget briefing who said, “Agriculture Canada will write the rule, but the intent is primarily to modernize and improve the competitiveness of existing plants”.
I'd appreciate your comments. He said that money should be available to help finance new slaughter plants in areas without access to an existing plant, and you are quoted as saying that you will fight any finance department attempt to limit the funds to the improvement of existing plants. So I'd like some confirmation that in fact people who want to put in new plants will have access to this money.
I have some examples. The president of the Grand Forks and Boundary Regional Agriculture Society says that because of the meat inspection regulations in B.C. they're scrambling to put in a mobile abattoir. They have some money from the province. They're wondering, specifically, if they can tap into this funding. I have the same question from a producer in the Peace region. Peace Country Tender Beef Co-op has purchased land. They're ready to start building within 120 days. Are they able to somehow tap into this funding? I also have an e-mail from a person in New Brunswick. They have had pressure also to conform to new regulations. Can they tap in? The last example is a Brussels slaughter facility in Ontario that was refused funding before, but they're wondering, once again, if they can tap in.
Fifty million dollars is not a lot. We have new plants ready to go. Will they see some of this money?