Good morning, Madam Dodds. I thank you and Mr. Aucoin for appearing.
We have had many meetings with PMRA over the past number of years that I've been involved in this committee. If there is one agency that has probably been named as being a bit of a thorn in farmers' sides, it's the way PMRA has worked in the past. But I believe we have moved beyond that to a point where I see some progress, and this is possible today probably thanks to a lot of your work. I like to be complimentary whenever I can, and I think this is one time we ought to recognize the work done.
As Canadians we've always talked about the kind of work we need to do towards harmonization, towards getting products that are used in the United States also being allowed to be used here.
The argument that is always made is that if you can buy a tomato that's grown in California and it is grown under a different product label, which is not allowed here, yet we allow the tomato to come in, why wouldn't that be allowed here? We keep getting those arguments. We talk about labelling and that we need a better identity of Canadian product, and what does “Canadian product” mean.
We didn't come here to talk about labelling, but I think it all goes back to the argument that can be made by a consumer and certainly can be made by farmers as to why are we not more flexible or perhaps more in tune in terms of the harmonization of products.
I didn't have an opportunity to look at the report here, which just came, so I'm sure some of that material is there. But perhaps you could bring us up to speed and tell us where we were four years ago compared to where we are now. And I know what you're trying to do is to give us some progress reporting. Could you just bring us up to speed as to where we were, where we are now, and how much more quickly the system is working today than it did four years ago?