Good morning. My name is Jim Laws. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council here in Ottawa. We represent Canada's federally registered meat processors in Canada.
We have three recommendations for you today.
First, Canada’s federally inspected meat processors are, by far, the most regulated of the food sectors. The Meat Inspection Act and regulations are extensive, and unlike other food sectors, meat inspection is mandatory and very regular. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency charged $21.4 million in 2006-07 to processors for meat inspection fees. Other inspection fees, such as export certificates, label approvals, etc., constitute a competitive disadvantage to Canadian meat processors. Unlike the American processors and provincially registered processors, we have to pay fees. Our first recommendation is that Canada should not be charging inspection fees to the meat processors. Some would argue that paying meat inspection fees compromises the independence of the regulator.
Our second recommendation is related to Canada's enhanced ruminant feed ban as a result of BSE found in Canada in 2003. In July of 2007, Canada put in place new enhanced feed ban regulations that would require the removal and disposal of certain ruminant materials that were previously allowed in the non-ruminant animal feed supply. These requirements imposed tremendous ongoing costs and lost revenues for our beef packing sector not faced by our American competitors, who are currently importing the same live cattle. Therefore, our second recommendation is that Canada should offset the cost of the enhanced ruminant feed ban regulations. Our latest survey shows that these cost our federally regulated industry $35.6 million per year.
Our final recommendation is related to food safety in Canada. As many of you know, over the years, meat processors have been continually improving their food safety systems. Millions of dollars have been invested by companies in upgrading their equipment and reformulating their products to include newly approved antimicrobials, such as the new high-pressure pasteurization technology and the addition of sodium diacetate to ready-to-eat luncheon meats. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional listeria, salmonella, and E. coli testing and countless more hours of sanitation management and quality control personnel have been invested. Needless to say, the lessons learned from the listeria outbreak of the summer of 2008 indicate that more needs to be invested in food safety technologies. As a result, our third and final recommendation is that Canada should fund new food safety technologies. Many new technologies do exist, and we estimate the cost to be $200 million per year.
Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions.