Thank you for the question.
Mr. Chairman, the federal standards for meat inspection apply to premises that are engaged in interprovincial and international trade. These standards are a combination of Canadian standards and input that countries that accept Canadian meat have given to us over the years. If you were to look at the standards that Canada implements in those federal facilities, you would see a combination of food safety standards that are driven by our own expertise and a combination of input that we receive, as an example, from the U.S., the EU, Japan, and countries to which Canada ships. Those standards are normally very high standards.
The next level of standard has to do with what the provinces have implemented. Mr. Chairman, there's a great variation in terms of how these standards are derived and how they are implemented. There is a whole range or scope of standards that are associated with these small plants. In some provinces there is no mandatory inspection, and there is an inspection in some provinces. There is a wide variety of standards.
As far as we are concerned, we've initiated discussions with the provinces to come up with a national standard that would potentially allow trade to take place between provinces, as the minister previously mentioned. There is some level of agreement in terms of what these standards would be. It's going to be a matter of deciding how they will be implemented, how the provinces will deliver that system themselves, or whether the federal government will deliver it on their behalf.
Those of you who are from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and to a certain extent B.C. would know that we deliver provincial meat inspections for some plants on the behalf of provinces. There is a lot of work being done with regard to standards and their applications.
In terms of your last question on where you should go in terms of flexibility for small producers that are stuck with no place to go, it's going to be very hard to come up with an answer on that. The majority of provinces that have implemented mandatory inspections have been facing these situations, where small plants did not meet the standards and had to be taken out of commission. It's a hard case.