Thank you, Chair, and to the witnesses who are appearing before us today.
Yesterday I had a meeting with representatives from UFCW, which represents approximately 70,000 workers in processing plants across Canada. I'm happy to hear the acknowledgement that labour is a critical part of the puzzle, because indeed it is. However, during the course of my meeting with UFCW, they clearly raised some ongoing concerns they had for the safety of their members.
If we acknowledge the important part that labour plays...I want to reiterate to members of the committee and our witnesses that UFCW did submit to Minister Bibeau's department seven recommendations for best practices. Even with the timeline we are on right now, and with all that we know about COVID-19, they found that in some cases recommendations were adopted and followed, but in many cases they were not.
With COVID numbers now on the rise again, and the vulnerability we've already seen in our supply chain, with some processing plants having to shut down, why is the CFIA not stepping in to enforce these consistently applied protocols to protect the health and safety of our workers?