Thank you very much for the question.
It is my understanding--and I am only a witness here and do not know the proceedings of this committee--that in the near future there will be a more fulsome discussion on the golden nematode situation in Quebec.
On areas of clarification, I will speak from the CFIA perspective on the resumption and normalization of trade with the United States. When we first announced in mid-August the positive find in Quebec, we all agreed that the reaction from the United States was overkill and not necessarily what was required to address the risk this situation posed.
I'm very pleased that in less than two months, which is a remarkable amount of time for this in-depth bilateral discussion and agreement, my staff were able to negotiate...with the help of everyone from parliamentarians, ministers, down to our field samplers taking samples to provide the evidence that it would take to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the United States to recognize the regionalization of the problem in a small area. Unfortunately, if you're in the area of Saint-Amable, you would consider it to be a major area. But relatively speaking, to all of Quebec and all of Canada, it's a relatively small, controlled area.
So there's the recognition of that, and then the normalization of trade for other products, including potatoes, for the rest of Quebec and the rest of Canada. I was very pleased with the results of that.
As you are aware as well, just last week the minister announced the establishment of a ministerial order. At that point, it signalled the method of control we were putting in place to ensure the golden nematode established in Saint-Amable would stay in Saint-Amable. We would work to lower the incidence of it and to prevent its further spread.
Those were two steps, and as I've said, I'm very pleased about the establishment of this and how quickly it went. Yet it is still a very serious issue that we continue to work with.