What we're looking for is that we have comparability in our systems. We've seen the approaches I have mentioned, of looking at HACCP or HACCP-based preventive controls. Canada was a pioneer in the early 1990s with regard to HACCP.
If I may digress just for a moment, Mr. Chair, in the first package of information I got after the U.S. introduced the mega-regulation following the Jack in the Box incident in 1992, there was a video. That video had five minutes of introduction by senior officials at USDA, and the rest of the video was an Agriculture Canada Food Production and Inspection video on HACCP.
So we have been a pioneer in these areas. We're still a pioneer in many of them, but what we now need to do is look at whether we have brought our legislative and regulatory regime into a state such that it can be compared favourably with that of our major trading partners. From our perspective on harmonization, we're not talking about whether this regulation reads exactly the same as that regulation, but whether we're using the same tool kits, we're achieving the same results, and we're doing it within our context.
At the moment we are, but looking down the road the question has to be asked whether, given all the changes that are happening and given our not making changes, we would still be comparable. That is the question we need to really look at.