Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to read my motion into the record. I would also like to say at the start that I have some concerns with the process I had to go through to get this motion on the table, but that's something I think would be best dealt with when we have all the regular members of the full committee here, so I'm willing to leave that until later.
My motion would read:
That the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food would like to commend Sheila Weatherill, the independent investigator into last summer's listeriosis outbreak, for her excellent work and, consequently, the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-food is of the view that no public inquiry is necessary.
In support of my motion, Mr. Chair, I would like to quote Mr. Easter's own words, in discussion of the avian flu public inquiry, when he was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food:
All another inquiry would do is rehash what has already been rehashed and for which recommendations have already been made. All it would do is cost more money. All it would do is tie up agency personnel who should be acting on recommendations instead of shuffling paper around.
Those were Mr. Easter's own words. The fact of the matter is that this government has already taken the issue seriously and conducted a lessons learned report. The food safety subcommittee has listened to over 50 hours of testimony from 77 witnesses, which resulted in 878 pages of documentation. As well, an independent investigator interviewed and met with more than 100 people first-hand who had knowledge of the events of last summer and compiled 5.8 million pages of information. In fact, Mr. Chair, the only individual of all of the witnesses we had come forward to ask for a public inquiry was one who clearly had a partisan Liberal affiliation, Mr. Amir Attaran.
From that, I submit my motion to the committee.