Thank you very much for being here and for taking the time.
Ms. Wing, you mentioned in your report that you're looking at the policies of Product of Canada, Made in Canada. As you are aware, our committee made a recommendation that “Product of Canada” labelling should have 51% content and not just the cost of production. Are you recommending to government to adopt that? Is that the line you're following, and will we see that implemented in Canada? That's the first question.
The other concern is that I notice this government seems to have the philosophy of deregulation, privatization, pulling out of certain programs. You mentioned there has been $113 million earmarked over two years for food safety, and yet there was a concern I raised, and I guess others raised, a few months ago, that the CFIA was one of the 17 initial departments that were doing a reassessment of programs. My concern at that time was whether this will have an effect on food safety.
So I would like to know if any inspections have been cut. Have we moved to some voluntary inspections in certain areas? Conversely, are we hiring more people to deal with the food safety that Canadians are becoming more and more worried about? In other words, does your budget earmark that we're going to hire more qualified people to ensure we have more programs in place to really look at that safety aspect that is a concern to all?
The concern is this. Are we doing enough and are we actually doing more by having professional people there on behalf of us to inspect?