Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I guess when you talk about the dates, we have July 12, which is what we call the regulatory date. That is when CFIA has the responsibility to ensure that there is compliance to the enhanced feed-ban regulations.
This is where the May 1 date comes in. I think it was Kathleen Sullivan of ANAC who brought that date to the committee. Basically what the feed industry has said is that for them to be in compliance on July 12, they have to stop accepting SRM as of May 1, so that they willl have SRM-free feed on the shelves, ready to go, on July 12.
We have been working with the feed industry and with ANAC to ensure that whatever they need to be in compliance with as far as the feed side of the house goes, we will work with them on that.
As far as the preparedness of the industry to meet the May 1 deadline goes, where the problems probably will occur the most will be basically in the segregation and the disposal of SRM come May 1, when the feed mills stop accepting the SRM.
For the last two months we have been trying to work with the industry and the provinces to identify where all the hurdles are. I think the three members from the three provinces here today have identified the fact that they've put a lot of commitment into trying to ensure that they will be ready. There are going to be some hurdles for the small abattoirs in some of the rural communities. That's been identified.
We are trying to identify ways that we can work with the industry so that they can meet that May 1 deadline on a voluntary basis. We're addressing some of the technical things that the CFIA can address so that we can speed up those processes, such as the issue on the rendering side of the house on the west coast, where they needed to get an answer from CFIA on whether or not we would allow certain SRM products to be processed in the same facility, so that they could get their infrastructure in place.
We're expediting all those things as much as possible. There are hurdles, but it's my role as the head of the task force to work with the industry and with the provinces to try to get answers to those hurdles as quickly as possible and to work on the solutions.