Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank these folks for coming today to talk to us about their interprovincial challenges.
Going back to what you were previously talking back—that the Canadian Meat Council would love to see a uniform inspection system right across the country—you said that you had 500 members and 132 abattoirs. Now, on the outside it sounds pretty simple: you would train more provincial inspectors to be federal inspectors, I guess.
But the devil is always in the details, and even if there were a big initiative across the country to make this happen, who would end up paying for it? You alluded to some numbers already. Who would end up paying for it, and how much of an advantage would you really have? Can the taxpayer or a small abattoir afford to have a federal inspector there at all times?
If this happened—and you talked about the numbers it would cost—you would almost need a federal program like a Growing Forward program, or something to help offset these costs, or you would be losing many of your 500 members, wouldn't you?