Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for coming today. It's nice to have together such a knowledgeable group of people out of the financial sector.
In this country we've been very fortunate, because worldwide there's been an economic downturn. You mentioned Greece and other countries that are suffering. In this country, we have 770,000 new jobs, a AAA credit rating, and a very sound banking system.
That said, there are a lot of things our government is doing right. You're here today to also give us some extended ideas, because we like to collaborate. We like to talk about what will make things better.
I'll start with Mr. Unrau.
Mr. Unrau, as you know, we put $100 million into the food safety initiative, including $50 million specifically on the system itself and making it better. I know that the cattle industry has taken a hit with the incident that happened in this plant; do you think the measures put in place by our government now have been helpful to all plants, and, if so, how would you suggest something like this happened?
We've also hired 157 new inspectors, as you know.