Thank you.
Thank you to all of our panellists and witnesses for being here, and thank you for your work.
I know that we're talking today about the CFIA being responsible for the enforcement of the Health of Animals Act and regulations, and I know we all agree that strong biosecurity measures are essential to protect our farmers, our food supply and our animal health and well-being.
As we've mentioned in the past year and today, protecting animal welfare is a shared responsibility between governments, and I believe you mentioned that provinces have jurisdiction on the farm. Existing legislation, whether it's under the Criminal Code, as we discussed, or provincial law or civil law that already exists for trespassing and unlawful entry.... Laws are usually meant to change things, so I'm not sure how it's clear what gap we're trying to fix, because a number of provinces—including mine, Ontario—have these laws. Would federal law, in your opinion, then supersede the existing provincial laws and also supersede the local and regional laws that exist?