Yes, that's well put, I think, but we need to back up to your starting point. That is the idea that imported food coming into Canada right now is not inspected as much or is somehow under less control. That's not accurate. And we didn't say that either. I'll try to explain it to you.
What is happening is that the CFIA has for years had a regular program of inspecting all kinds of food coming into Canada. These are parameters set using science and saying that if we inspect x number of loads of imported food, we'll have a pretty good understanding of what's coming into Canada. It's not unlike the vote polling that goes on. If you access 1,200 Canadians, there's a pretty good chance—95%—you'll get pretty close to what Canadians are thinking. This is the same type of principle they use at the border.
That was going on. What was missing, and what we're talking about, is that when you found the violation, the only thing you could really do was take a product off the shelf and hope it didn't come in again. You didn't have the tool that you now have, which is you could actually prosecute an importer. You could identify the importer. Right now, we know that the food is coming in, and we don't like what's coming in. We found it and we tested it. We send it back, or we do something with it, but we can't really legally hold someone responsible. That's what changes.
In meat and poultry, of course, all the plants are registered, and we can only import from registered plants around the country that have been approved by the CFIA. That was in place. If something was wrong with meat and poultry imports, you had an address. You had a component that you could address and legally take action against. We did not have that in a lot of food imports. That's going to change. The CFIA is going to register all food importers.
In talking about labelling, if we also insist—and we can, under this bill—that all labels should be registered before they come into Canada, then we'll have total control over those imports. We can then stand up, the minister can stand up, and you in Parliament can stand up and say that imports are controlled as well as any other product in Canada.