Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's good to have officials here to shed some light on this legislation.
Certainly, I hope we aren't governing by the number of petitions. Well, maybe we should start. There's a petition in the House with 350,000 signatures asking for an election. If we're going that route, then I would say we'd better follow that one too.
Dr. Ireland from CFIA, thank you very much for coming. I want to highlight a letter from the previous agriculture minister to the Métis Nation of Alberta on this bill specifically. The letter from Madam Bibeau at that time said:
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a science-based organization. Therefore, the Agency would only ban the slaughter of a species on the basis of a significant body of strong, peer-reviewed evidence. In the absence of such a body of evidence, there are currently no plans to ban horse slaughter in Canada.
Is the CFIA in possession of a strong body of peer-reviewed evidence to support the banning of the export of horses for slaughter—or any other animal, for that matter?