I just wanted to reflect on all the witnesses we've heard. I wanted to state for the record that there are a couple of things that have come to my attention in the discourse of this debate over the past several weeks that are not covered in the bill. I want to state them for the record because I think they merit further consideration.
One has to do with animal welfare. The other has to do with biosecurity standards.
I've tried to address the latter in the amendment that I've moved here today. The reason—if I may explain very briefly why I've put this amendment forward—is that I didn't feel as though the language in the legislation, as it was originally drafted, tackled the biosecurity measures in a clear enough way.
What I have tried to do here is to help alleviate—I hope—some of the concerns on the part of farmers we heard passionately and very justifiably from, who were concerned about the impact on their properties and, more importantly, on their animals, by virtue of a lack of biosecurity measures being in place. What I've intended to do here is to try to strengthen the language with the addition of the word “intentionally” abdicating. I felt that there was perhaps a bit of ambiguity that existed in some of our previous amendments that had been proposed and in the original legislation as drafted.
I'm certainly happy to answer any questions. That's the brief context in which I have approached this particular piece.
I will say that I was very surprised to learn that there is not so much a national legal standard for biosecurity measures in the country, but more of a haphazard, patchwork approach to this. I hope that regardless of where we end up with this particular piece of legislation, it can help serve as a catalyst to get us to a place where we're talking in more detail about animal welfare generally speaking, but we're also talking about biosecurity standards, because I think that merits further conversation. Although I understand that it perhaps wasn't the entire intention of Mr. Barlow's bill, I'm happy to work with him should there be a desire to tackle an enhancement of biosecurity measures standards, generally speaking, in farms across the country.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.