Agriculture committee  Absolutely. In fact, that inspection station, as I was trying to explain, is not related to product destined for Canadians or for any other market, which is why the instruction was explicit to Japan and was provided to the individual who at any point in time was working on that position—the expectation that they not inspect carcasses not destined for Japan, because that's not the role of that station.

Agriculture committee  The one thing I would add is that it is an entire system. An inspector is not going to be operating so independently in making a decision that it becomes arbitrary. The training that the president spoke about is a critical element, but that inspector is also going to be supported by a network in terms of interpretation so that when an inspector is faced with a situation, they apply their judgment, but they also have the support of program specialists who can provide direct feedback to the inspector on the interpretation of events.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the context of the documentation, I take from your question that it's the issue of the documents we would see routinely versus documents when in an investigation. For example, our routine review of documents in support of the demonstration that an establishment is doing the things it should have been doing with respect to its HACCP plan wouldn't extend to its distribution records.

Agriculture committee  First and foremost, the products on our store shelves are subject to the same requirements, whether they are imported or produced domestically. That's first and foremost, it is the same set of requirements for those products. Second, there's the oversight system I mentioned, which assesses products and takes action, and in fact we see a very high level of compliance.

Agriculture committee  Very quickly, not every lot of product that comes in is subject to direct oversight. It is the confidence in the system, and like any other area of activity, we take a risk-based approach, a science-based approach, to defining what's the appropriate sample that gives us the confidence that the entire suite of products meets requirements.

Agriculture committee  I can't say with identity...but it is very similar.

Agriculture committee  There's equivalence on both sides.

Agriculture committee  The agency is very committed to continuing to strengthen the oversight with respect to imports. The complexity I mentioned and globalization mean that Canada sees a much more diverse range of products from an ever-increasing number of countries. The importance of strengthening the import controls was recognized.

Agriculture committee  No, transportation isn't a weak link. The entire system, frankly, in terms of the Canada-U.S. movement of goods, is a very strong system. Some 58% of the foods Canada imports come from the United States. They come from a system of which we have a very high degree of understanding, and in many sectors we have gone through formal equivalence initiatives.

Agriculture committee  Yes, and the Regulatory Cooperation Council's focus on better alignment recognizes that even though both systems are very strong, there are areas of difference, and those areas of difference.... It's not that they're having a negative impact in terms of food safety. What they're doing is serving as a barrier to trade.

Agriculture committee  Unfortunately I can't tell you off the top of my head if there's a nice, simple, clear explanation. But I think that's an opportunity, because there's clearly an interest.

Agriculture committee  Our aim in reviewing the frameworks is to provide greater flexibility so that industry can find solutions to the challenges they face without having to fit into a simplistically predictable and prescriptive model. When we look at existing frameworks, we recognize that industry has been innovative where they've had room to innovate.

Agriculture committee  There is certainly a tremendous amount of information on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website. In addition to that, in terms of food safety, healthycanadians.ca is also a great source of information for Canadians wanting to better understand the steps taken by the various partners in protecting them.

Agriculture committee  Certainly that's our aim. If, through our actions and our partnership with the various agencies that participate in the regulatory framework, we can prevent the types of situations our German colleagues experienced with contaminated sprouts, then that is exactly what we will do.

Agriculture committee  Certainly our objective is for continuous improvement in the system. If we use the example of SRM, we've taken very much to heart that the industry has noted that the compliance cost in response to SRM removal is an issue. What they've said to us is that they share the commitment that we have in terms of consumer protection.