That's one of my concerns in my recommendations in the report. We should be seeking ever better levels to bring our key stakeholders and the key partners together--local, provincial, and federal--to respond quickly, with timeliness, effectively, and efficiently. That's correct.
I think the listeriosis outbreak is one that went very well and very quickly. From that, it's a good one to evaluate the system, because you can look at the system blockages that are there, and we can analyze and ask how we can improve the system. That was the main purpose of the report: that we'll do our part at the Ontario level, but we do need to have strong coordination with our other federal, provincial, and territorial partners as well if we're going to carry out a consistent response.
On the issues you're raising that did come up, in fact, I was caught by surprise that there was some difficulty for the Toronto inspectors to gain access to the facility. As I understand it, they did the proper thing and informed that they were coming over as a matter of courtesy, because we tried to take the high road and to work in a cooperative and coordinated way. I only learned after a day or so that there was some need for some letter and a request, and I wasn't sure why that was required. Perhaps Dr. McKeown could answer some of that further. But that was not under our fiat or protocol.
While that's not binding, there is a recommendation for a committee where, if an inspection is required, all inspectors are invited in to work together. That includes federal inspectors. In our case in Ontario, our Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs inspectors and our local public health unit inspectors are not to be in competition but to work as a team to quickly gather the information you need to inform each sector and to inform each other on a rapid coordinated response.
That is one of my main concerns from the recommendation. What kind of forum can we have? I recommended a coordinating committee, an outbreak one at the local level, the provincial level, and the federal level. That would require the key heads of each one to be there to be forthcoming with information, to solve those problems, and to encourage a level of coordination and communication. Because in these cases, much as we've seen with water and in the past with blood-borne infections, the public expects a higher level of performance. Jurisdictional issues should not be a factor. The public's protection is paramount, and we need to be striving towards that.