Thank you, Alex. Those are all good questions.
On the 500 e-mails, I get a copy of those as well, of course. That's a small sampling of the total numbers we get on any given issue.
Certainly, I agree with them that food inspection is a shared jurisdiction. We are the regulator and industry is the applicator, but at the end of the day, we have never gone to self-policing, nor are we intending to go to anything that is self-policing.
At the end of the day, we are the regulator. Depending on the facility, we do that in conjunction with provincial governments and, in some cases, municipal governments, but at the end of the day there are regulations in place that we enforce.
All of these facilities have certain standards to meet. If they exceed them, even better, but there are certain standards out there that we enforce. We continue to do that. This idea that we're somehow dropping the ball is absolutely ridiculous.
I look forward to the independent investigation. I look forward to the investigations the CFIA constantly does in looking for best practices that can be implemented. I look forward to the work that's being done at the public health level, both federally and provincially, in regard to food safety.
A lot of it, too, is educational. There is a point where governments are no longer involved in that food supply. You buy it at the grocery store. Was it handled properly there? Was it handled properly within the kitchen itself? Did the chicken stay out on the counter all day before it was cooked? We have some 11 million to 14 million incidents of a food-borne something every year, and the vast majority of those happen right in the kitchen, not at the processing facilities and so on.
It's a constant struggle to stay on top of those types of things. That's why we have reinvested in the CFIA. That's why we have hired 207 new inspectors since March 2006. Someone wanted to know where they have been put into place. I could have Dr. Evans or Mr. Prince come up and actually identify that for you. We know where they are and we're hiring more. It's always a problem getting qualified people in today's economy, but we are out there actively headhunting.
As far as the WTO is concerned, the only way you can support supply management and continue to support supply management like this government has done is if you're at the table. This whole concept that we somehow walk away and take a deal is not in anyone's best interests. You stay at the table and you help make a deal.
I think we have done that very well. I don't see any resurgence against anything that Canada is doing at this time. Of course, we're seeing countries become more protectionist, as opposed to trading internationally. The U.S. is a case in point with some of the things we've seen there.
On state trading enterprises, you're specifically talking about the Wheat Board. We have always said that those decisions need to be made domestically, not enforced on us from outside, and we continue to say that. I continue to work with the Wheat Board in the best interests of producers.
I'm very concerned when I see them put out a press release saying they're closing the malt barley pool because they don't want to destroy the high price they have. They're now forcing everyone, for the rest of this year, to go into CashPlus, which does not serve farmers. If the Wheat Board is not offering a pool, they're going against their mandate. I need to have that discussion with the Wheat Board.
On slaughter and processing, you also said, and you're very right in saying so, that Agriculture Canada, not the Department of Finance, writes the rules on how that will be implemented. Certainly I am interested in slaughter and processing capacity. I want to build the economy here. When we started seeing the Americans lever things like country-of-origin labelling, we were very concerned that we've relied on across-the-line processing far too much. We need to build that capacity here in Canada and maintain it.
We're also getting calls from offshore enterprises. The Pacific Rim is looking for age verification on cattle. We lose that as it goes through the Americans into some of these markets. On organics, there's a tremendous opportunity to lever into that Korean market that's been rebuffing us. We need those capacities out there that can be lean, mean, and trim and that can dedicate themselves to those markets. That's what we're looking for: to fill some of the gaps out there.
I mentioned the Winnipeg facility. Right now, they have a process up and limping. They need some help. We're happy to help.
But on all of these applications--and you named off a bunch--with the exception of the mobile abattoir, which is totally provincially regulated because there are no federal regulations that cover mobile abattoirs, absolutely. So on the mobile abbatoir, it's no, but on the others you listed, absolutely. Get us in a sound business plan and an application and tell us what you're going to need. We'll take a look at it. It's a three-year program. There's $20 million available the first year and $15 million in the two following years.
We'll take a look at every business plan, Alex, and we'll assess them on their regional capacity. That was one of the things that came out of the meeting in Nova Scotia on the weekend. All of the beef producers within the Maritimes were saying let's put our pressure on ABP in Prince Edward Island, the Atlantic beef packers; lLet's make sure they have the feedstocks; let's make sure we don't start three other processing capacities with none of them having the economies of scale to move forward.
So that's what we're looking at, Alex, to fill those gaps. And I look forward to those business plans coming in.