I agree. We definitely support the idea of a single system. The challenge is for smaller establishments. Some of the changes recently proposed would make it easier for some of the smaller players to get their federal registration. That's fair. At the end of the day, I do think it's hard for a well-developed country like Canada to justify anything other than one level of meat hygiene, one level of plant standard, one level of mandatory HACCP and pathogen testing, and so on.
Right now in many provinces we talk about listeria in a plant making ready-to-eat meat. In provincial establishments listeria testing is not mandatory. Of course, we believe it should be. Admittedly, the plant volumes in those cases are relatively small. To really succeed they're going to have to come up to the federal standard.
The one concern is always that we have to maintain confidence in our system for purposes of export. We're so dependent on export, so the system in Canada has to be squeaky clean. It is sometimes hard to explain why we still have two tiers or two levels of inspection in Canada. Certainly, to export, you have to be part of the federal system. That's the basis for our business.