Natural Resources committee  It was hard for us to draw a judgment on that, because we're not the experts. As my colleague here has said, the CNSC does have people on site in addition to the 24 inspectors it assigns to the plants, but as the commissioner has alluded to, if you don't have a minimum number of

Natural Resources committee  We saw a range from approved guides to no approved guides to draft guides to no guides. I would say the most troublesome part was when inspectors went out with no guide and just used professional judgment. We view that as a concern in terms of continuity as well. When you have tu

Natural Resources committee  Sure. As Julie mentioned, I have a fair bit of experience—

Natural Resources committee  —doing performance audits, and this was a challenging one, to say the least, but in the end I'd have to say it was positive in the sense that we came to “yes” and we did get the commission to agree to all our recommendations. Mind you, if you look at the responses, the first para

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that is correct.

Public Accounts committee  That is correct. The risk assessment determines the likelihood of harm due to exposure to a hazardous substance, and it's a very important input in issuing a recall. Health Canada was consistent with international principles and met its eight-hour timeframe.

Public Accounts committee  That is correct.

Public Accounts committee  Well, the manual was developed in 2004, but it didn't really begin to be used until 2008.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, that was also an area where they did that quickly. Of the 59 recalls, 28 of them required a public warning and those warnings were all done within a 24-hour period.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, CFIA does indeed carry out all its checks and this is done with a random sampling plan. We did note in the chapter, however, that 16% of these did not meet their time standards. We followed up with each of these files and found there were particular reasons for that. W

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that is correct.

Public Accounts committee  Our sample during that two-year period of audit was randomly selected.

Public Accounts committee  Normally, on average, every year there are between 200 and 300 recalls and our samples—

Public Accounts committee  No. The ones that we looked at were the three large meat recalls in 2012.

Public Accounts committee  I can't speak to the recalls outside of the 59 that we examined. Of the ones that we examined, yes, it was contained.