Agriculture committee  I go back to the same point. The minister, I thought, made several important points. First of all, I don't think you can say the system is failing. Every statistic shows that illnesses are going down significantly and we are having success. Every indication is that we have one o

Agriculture committee  We've done a number of things. In mid May we issued a new E. coli policy that included a number of improvements that strengthen the requirements of plants and strengthen the requirements to inform us when they have high-event days. We have set new limits of 5% as the bar for high

Agriculture committee  Thank you for giving me an opportunity to answer that question again. Since Weatherill, we have made significant efforts in training. We have trained all our front-line inspection staff on CVS. Of course, training can always be enhanced. In budget 2011, we received $100 million

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Minister. First of all, I would like to say that the agency has put tremendous effort into implementing all of the recommendations in the Weatherill report. You specifically mentioned the issues around training and CVS. At that time, as I'm sure you're well aware and

Agriculture committee  With all due respect, sir—

Agriculture committee  Thank you. I'll give you a breakdown. This information is posted on our website in terms of the outcomes of budget 2012. As I think everyone is aware, after three years, meaning by 2014-15, there would be an overall budget reduction of about $56 million. About $24.5 million of

Agriculture committee  Well, again, sir, I come back to the main point. I think there are two separate aspects to the question and the comments that you've just made. As we have explained on several occasions now, that memo was explicit instruction to one station, whose job at that station was not sa

Agriculture committee  Again, I respectfully don't agree with that analysis. We have posted the memo. I would invite anyone who is interested to read the actual memo. It makes it very clear that the instruction is to that particular position. It is not a general instruction to all staff in that plant t

Agriculture committee  There would be a variety of people over the years, sir. It was an instruction for that position. As you know, our inspectors rotate the jobs they do within the normal tasks, so it would not be one individual for the last four years. It was anyone assigned to that particular stati

Agriculture committee  I will ask Mr. Mayers to provide you with that detail.

Agriculture committee  That is absolutely correct.

Agriculture committee  That's absolutely correct. In fact, the plant's critical control points for fecal matter were after that particular inspection station.

Agriculture committee  That is correct.

Agriculture committee  Respectfully, sir, I simply have to disagree with your analysis. As I've been trying to emphasize, that memo was from a supervisor giving specific instruction to one individual whose job and task at that station was simply to certify the requirements for Japan for export. That

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Minister. The first thing I want to clarify and emphasize is that food safety is the number one priority in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Every piece of communication I've sent out and that the agency has sent out has consistently reinforced that poin