Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to present a number of questions. The first will focus on laboratory testing.
Is there any way for the federal government to streamline the steps involved in testing for listeriosis from hospital and private labs to, for example, the Ontario public health laboratory and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg for fingerprinting? What backup systems exist if one or more labs are unavailable? What action might the federal government take to increase greater regional laboratory capacity?
I now have some specific questions. Why was there a delay--August 13--in requesting unopened samples of food from Maple Leaf when the first food results were available on August 6?
Why didn't the CFIA or, better yet, the Chief Medical Officer of Health order a recall of packaged meat products? Why was it left to the corporation to do, and why was it voluntary?
I'm wondering if there is a minimum standard, i.e. number of cases, contaminated food samples, deaths, higher-than-average number of cases, that would have triggered concern regarding listeriosis and then triggered subsequent health advisories to the public.
If I may add one last question, I think we all appreciate very much how Maple Leaf responded. There's one inconsistency. Maple Leaf undertook a voluntary recall, temporarily shut down the plant, and made a public apology when government failed to do so. Why did Maple Leaf not go public on August 13 when it notified selected customers asking them not to use products with the same product codes as the Toronto sample? What did “selected customers” mean? Did it include all customers? If not, who were left out? What systems were in place to identify the number of locations and establishments that received product during the outbreak?
Thank you.