Agriculture committee  I think we probably need to have a food act, as opposed to the Food and Drugs Act. In that process, then, we probably need to go through a discussion of what in this day and age—and remember, it's been a long time since we restructured the Food and Drugs Act from a food perspective—are the tools that we need to have in the legislation, what are the ones that need to be in regulation, and what are the ones that can be dealt with administratively.

Agriculture committee  If I understand your first question, the coalition doesn't have a specific role in the cases where we're dealing with a food safety incident. Our role is much broader than that, at the policy level, if that's your question. Do we do enough to identify where we may have challenges in the supply chain?

Agriculture committee  Does the agency have enough tools to do its job?

Agriculture committee  I think what we're going to see in the coming years is a change in the role of the inspectors. Clearly they have a great many tools available to them in terms of their powers of enforcement and their ability to do those kinds of things. The challenge we've seen—as your subcommittee and as others work their way through the unfortunate events of several years ago with the listeria case—has demonstrated even more so that our enemy is bugs, and bugs can't be seen.

Agriculture committee  I think it would be difficult for me to give you specifics. If I understand what you mean by specific examples of a situation where it's fallen, in your words, on its face in the relationship with a particular company....

Agriculture committee  Yes, and I think it's fair to say that most of those issues are brought to the attention of the agency by the member associations dealing with the specific industry initiatives. The role of the coalition isn't to be involved in what we would call a vertical issue, such as meat or poultry inspection, or the dairy industry, where there might be specific issues of concern across the country or in certain regions.

Agriculture committee  Sure. Thank you very much. We've seen in previous federal-provincial-territorial agreements going back to CARD, to APF, to the first round of Growing Forward, that food safety has been a priority within those. We'd like to see it again be a priority in Growing Forward 2. For Canada to continue to have the reputation that it deservedly has of being able to export product that is safe and is seen as safe, we have to have initiatives that are going to support the development of food safety systems, especially by small and medium-sized businesses, and by what I refer to as micro-businesses as well.

Agriculture committee  We come at this as something that is a foundational statement, from our perspective. The approach we have taken in Canada for well over two decades is that we're looking for rigorous hazard analysis inside companies to determine what hazards they face, and what control measures they should put in place.

Agriculture committee  What we're looking for is that we have comparability in our systems. We've seen the approaches I have mentioned, of looking at HACCP or HACCP-based preventive controls. Canada was a pioneer in the early 1990s with regard to HACCP. If I may digress just for a moment, Mr. Chair, in the first package of information I got after the U.S. introduced the mega-regulation following the Jack in the Box incident in 1992, there was a video.

Agriculture committee  Well, we're certainly appreciative that the agency has taken the initiative to look at the question. Industry has had concerns over many years around the inconsistency inside inspections and the level of it. I'm sure members on both sides have heard those kinds of concerns. Clearly the agency also has some challenges in dealing with a good many acts—I believe the number is 13—and a large number of regulations.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I can't provide you with any more accuracy as to the percentage of imports that are inspected on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. It's a problem that challenges industrial countries all around the world, in terms of being able to inspect the volume of product that's coming across the border.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Allen, that's a very good question. The challenge has been coming for a number of years, and I certainly don't want to leave the impression that Canadian farmers and processors and other participants in the supply chain haven't been moving ahead very quickly to try to meet what they've seen for some time as the new paradigm in terms of food safety.

Agriculture committee  I think in the ideal world that would be a very good place to be. It's not going to be easy to get there. Those standards move much faster than regulatory standards can. We see a number of initiatives globally where the private sector's trying to harmonize and bring some control over that variation.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members, for inviting the Canadian Supply Chain Food Safety Coalition to appear during your hearings on the supply chain. An understanding of the role of the food supply chain in Canada is important for many reasons, two of which are directly related to the mandate given the coalition by its members: food safety and emergency preparedness.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  The answer from the coalition's perspective is, yes, those results can be achieved. There are tools available to us, tools that industry has created. I've made mention of them in my comments—the presentation talks about them—and you've had other witnesses before you who have mentioned them too.