Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the committee, Ms. Mitchell.
In your capacity as the director of legal advocacy.... Well, first of all, I've been very interested in trying to see the different legal forms this policy position would take. We have Mr. Louis and the bill before the committee. We have Senator Dalphond in the Senate with Bill S-270.
I did ask the department whether they made any legislative forays, but they have not yet arrived at that position. It would have been interesting to have seen what the department came up with in terms of legislation.
Mr. Louis has taken the route of creating a stand-alone federal act. There are some pretty detailed requirements for declarations and so on, whereas Senator Dalphond decided to take a route where he's amending an existing act, the Health of Animals Act. His bill is quite simple. It's just simply that no person shall export from Canada a horse or other equine for slaughter.
I'm wondering if you could inform the committee, with your expertise, of your opinion on the different approaches in order to help us better understand whether amendments might be necessary and what legal route might be the best way.