Thanks, Bob, and thanks to the committee for the invitation to appear.
Back in 2018, we recommended the creation of a Canadian red meat industry export development fund, which looked at trying to increase capacity with a particular focus on eastern Canada, especially cooler capacity, some modifications on the processing line, and, as well, setting us up to be able to take advantage of a number of these trade agreements that require specialized processing to meet those specific requirements.
A second area we want to talk about is harmonizing our procedures in the U.S. and Canada with South Korea. Right now there is a specific clause in our agreement with Korea that would lead to the suspension of our shipments until an investigation is completed. Right now that's causing a number of plants in the U.S. not to process Canadian cattle—or, if they do, they're doing it only on a segregated basis. Access to the U.S. is really important for competitive pricing in our industry.
Bob mentioned the set-aside program, and we're asking that it be extended. We're not through the whole COVID situation yet, and we don't know what's going to happen for the rest of this year until we get up to where, hopefully, all Canadians, or most Canadians, are vaccinated. Having that tool in place worked very well last summer, and being able to work with it very quickly is really important.
Then I have a couple of comments about our regulatory system. Right now the procedures in Canada on our specified risk material related to BSE are different from those in the U.S., and this creates a competitive disadvantage. It actually led to the closure of a number of small and medium-sized plants that just weren't competitive with the different environments. We're looking at working with the agency to walk through a review of that, and hopefully we'll complete that as soon as possible.
Finally, I have to talk about labour. It's hard to talk about expansion when you're having trouble getting enough employees for your current size. The more individuals we're able to bring in who want to work in those plants.... These are all union jobs across Canada in our industry, and again, quite often depending on foreign workers to fill vacancies in that. Automation is something we're supporting, and it is part of the solution, but there is no replacement for a highly skilled meat professional when it comes to cutting all of these different specifications for market.
Finally, again, because of the risks, as you have seen, the packing industry in North America meat processing has spent $1.5 billion since last January to put in place protections for their employees. Certainly we feel that placing a vaccination priority on agri-food processing workers would be very important moving forward.
With that, I'll conclude our remarks.