Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  We recognize, and I'm sure others would recognize it as well, that information exchange in these circumstances is extremely critical. We worked very hard to provide the information in a timely manner that people were looking for. Part of that was making sure the information we had was relevant to what was happening, that it was in a format we could all collectively use, and that the analysis indicated it would take us to where we needed to go.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  No. Unfortunately, I think people are misconstruing “mandatory recall”. While it is true that under the CFIA Act, section 19, the minister has the authority to require a recall, by obligation, by law, this power is normally executed where a company is either not in a position--they've gone bankrupt--or they've refused to cooperate.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I would certainly like to confirm this officially with all the provinces and territories. I know that Quebec has mandatory recall policy in this area in provincial jurisdiction. I would like to verify with all other jurisdictions before I would answer that definitively. As I said, I know that Ontario officials have extraordinary powers under the Health Information Protection Act, as do the district health units, which in many cases exceed our authorities.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  There were no pilot inspection activities under way at the time of the circumstance, honourable member. The compliance verification program, in fact, was piloted in 123 different ready-to-eat meat establishments as part of the validation process. That had taken place over the previous two years, including Maple Leaf.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  We actually have the individual here from the Office of Food Safety and Recall who was the lead contact point on this. If you would like to speak to him directly, Mr. Anderson, he could walk you through it. Alternatively, I can say unequivocally that in fact we had good working relations.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  As part of the early process, we had earnest discussions with them about the merits of doing an occupational health and safety assessment in the plant, in the context that potentially, once listeria was identified as a factor in the plant, that would have impacts on employees of the plant itself.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you, Monsieur Bellavance. It's a very important question. I've appeared before committee on multiple occasions. My commitment to public service and my commitment to Canadians is not in doubt, I hope, with this committee. I would point out very clearly that, yes, there was a meeting on July 24 with one of the representatives from Maple Leaf Foods.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I'd like to address the first issue, on lab capacity, and then I would ask Paul Mayers if he could respond to the subsequent questions posed by the member. With respect to lab capacity, streamlining tests, etc., this comes back largely to part of your coordination opportunity question.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  That's correct. If you're okay with that, I would ask Paul if he could respond to your other points.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Again, this is not me speaking as a member of the Food Inspection Agency, but certainly in our discussions with our academic panel, certainly in our discussions with experts outside of Canada, there is this recognition collectively across the board that you cannot inspect, you cannot test your way to food safety.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Honourable member, if I could say, I spoke with Dr. David Williams earlier today, and one of the areas I identified with Dr. Williams was the fact that we did not have an alignment in our understanding. We've gone to great lengths to try to determine who from CFIA might have been involved in any call that occurred on July 30.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you for the question. Again, it is well known to the members of this committee and others that the HACCP application to food safety was actually developed several decades ago in the United States by the Pillsbury Company, when they were contracted by NASA to develop food safety programs for astronauts, because obviously it would be catastrophic if an astronaut developed a food-borne illness in space in the absence of medical attention.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  It's been a regulatory requirement for a number of years that should they detect...on end product testing there is a legal obligation for them to report. But there was no legal obligation for them to report to us immediately on an environmental sample that was positive. They did have obligations, themselves, to conduct sanitation and to retest.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  No. The end product testing has persisted on the part of both the federal government and the industry, and in fact it has also been ramped up in response to the circumstance as well.