Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
For a few moments, I would like everyone to put themselves in the shoes of consumers, which is not difficult, as we are all consumers. We eat your products and those of your competitors. We eat products that come from Quebec, Canada, and other countries. So we have reason to be concerned when events like the one last August and others occur. Listeria is one strain of bacteria, but there is also E. coli. There is no doubt that several products were inspected, but some of them made it through the inspections and controls and ended up on store shelves, causing diseases and, unfortunately, death. I am not just talking about your products. There was the case of spinach from the United States as well as carrot and pear juice. At one point, a host of products were contaminated in one way or another and made people sick and some cases, caused death, unfortunately.
Consumers who follow the work of this committee or who read the papers are entitled to question the number of inspections and inspectors. Unfortunately, we will never be able to prevent such unfortunate events from occurring and certain products from being missed. People tell themselves that they pay taxes to the government so that the government will protect them. But sometimes there is no such protection.
When people read in the papers that some inspectors whose work involves protecting them spend the bulk of their time in an office with paperwork instead of inspecting food, they are entitled to question whether their safety is in jeopardy. When people read that an employee at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency claims the government wants companies to regulate themselves by doing their own inspections, they are entitled to wonder whether they are adequately protected.
You say you are accepting responsibility because these events occurred under your watch. I want to correct you, Mr. McCain: they also occurred under the government's watch. Employees and inspectors from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency must be involved. They must work in conjunction with the industry in order to prevent these kinds of problems.
Here's another aspect that raises questions in people's minds. Up until April 2008, federally accredited meat facilities were required to undergo a full verification. Monitoring in that area has been relaxed. At the Maple Leaf plant where the listeriosis contamination broke out last summer, there had not been a complete verification of the systems for at least a year prior to the Listeria outbreak.
I will repeat that responsibility must be shared. I would like you to put yourselves in the shoes of the people who see these events and who will be better informed following the meetings of this committee. They will know a lot more following the investigation demanded by the government and conducted by Ms. Weatherill, which was done without our knowing exactly what happened. If you put yourself in the place of consumers, you will understand that they are entitled to ask questions about public health, their health and the health of their families.