Agriculture committee  Well, I am trying—

Agriculture committee  I would be happy to do that. Thank you. The statement we issued was as follows: [Last night] , CTV reported on a four-year-old memo sent to inspectors at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The union, which represents inspectors, has recently alleged that the memo directed inspection staff at XL Foods Inc. to perform certain tasks for meat destined for export to Japan, while ignoring food safety controls for domestic meat.

Agriculture committee  That's absolutely correct. As I think the committee knows, we have 46 staff in that plant who are doing that work. As I was trying to explain, this memo was instruction to one individual, who was doing a very specific task related to certifying exports for Japan. That in no way detracts from the emphasis on food safety, all of the controls that are in place, and all of the work the other people from CFIA in that plant are doing to verify the safety of the product and deal with any contamination.

Agriculture committee  It was tabled in June.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question. I'll ask Mr. Mayers to elaborate on a couple of points, but we'll go back to the basic point. All of our inspectors will have to be held to a test of reasonableness and will have to act based on information. As I mentioned, there is a specific review mechanism contained in this bill for any regulated party who feels that an inspector has behaved inappropriately, has exceeded his authority, or has not used the authority properly in relation to the situation.

Agriculture committee  They gave us the documents in a piecemeal fashion over September 10 and 11. They came in piecemeal. There were issues of incomplete information and there was difficulty in analyzing the information and putting it together. I can get Mr. Mayers to give you a bit more detail on that.

Agriculture committee  I'll ask Mr. Bouwer to cover the authority issue, but I did want to make one point about the web-based product and what it is. It is a tool. It's primarily for companies that want to be able to put a label together. We now do a lot of back-and-forth explaining of this and that, so we're doing a web-based tool that they can use themselves.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I will work with the clerk or the chair on what information can be provided. I must say that providing names is probably going to be very difficult, because I think it raises privacy issues.

Agriculture committee  Maybe I'll turn that over to Neil Bouwer and Colleen Barnes to respond.

Agriculture committee  In relation to your first question, that is very much a policy issue and it is not appropriate for me to comment on it in the context that you raised it, except to note that the legislation being proposed does have a review provision, and that review provision includes reference to resource review.

Agriculture committee  There are really two aspects that are very important. Our inspectors are critical. You have to give them the full range of authority. You can't micromanage and shouldn't micromanage an inspector in the field. We rely on their training, professionalism, and judgment. One of the important things in exercising that power is you have to have reasonable cause.

Agriculture committee  We have a formula that takes into account a variety of factors, including the speed of the line, to determine how many inspectors are needed in a particular plant. What we have in XL is equivalent to what we have in other slaughter plants, taking into account the size of the plant, the amount of production, the speed of the line, and so forth.

Agriculture committee  I was going to ask Mr. Mayers, but if you put a 10-second time limit, that may not be possible. I think there are some things that are very common no matter what you are inspecting. Basic sanitation is a prime example of that. Obviously, there will always within that have to be some particular aspects tailored to whatever the product is and whatever the plant is doing.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question. The first point I would make is I agree with you that there has been a certain amount of confusion around the number of inspectors, but we've tried very hard to dispel that confusion. We have the exact numbers posted on our website, running back eight or nine years.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to introduce Neil Bouwer, our vice-president for policy and programs; Colleen Barnes, one of the executive directors in policy and programs, who has done an awful lot of work on this bill; Paul Mayers, the associate vice-president of policy and programs; and finally, Madame Martine Dubuc, the vice-president of science, and actually Canada's new chief food safety officer.