Thank you, Mr. Shipley.
You're giving me credit for things I really can't take a bow for. The allocations for those budgetary items are by my good friend, Jim Flaherty, the Minister of Finance. I was excited to work with him in putting forward those programs and policies, which are much-needed.
Even in tough economic times, food safety is still paramount, and we have to start allocating the right resources at the right time. I am looking forward to the reports and all of the interventions that will come to us in the next short months that will give us a better definition of where to spend money. We're not just going to throw money at the target, Mr. Shipley, but we're going to make sure that it hits the target and actually helps us get the job done.
I think we've had a good track record in that. I know that CFIA, after years of struggling under a mandate that has called on them to do a little bit of everything and to take responsibility for everything, has been burdened. In the meetings I have with these good people up here at the table, we are constantly working through their budgetary process to make sure they have what they need to continue the battle to make sure that food is safe for Canadians.
I've been proud to be part of the process that has reinvested resources, both human and fiscal, into CFIA. It is a world-renowned organization; and as we work to open up trade flows around the world, CFIA does play a huge role.
One of the things that you neglected to mention—and I won't go back over the list you went through, on which you did a good job—is the market access secretariat. For us as a trading nation, that secretariat is very, very important, and CFIA plays a huge role in it, giving us the credibility to go into those new and emerging markets and to start to bring our product there. The secretariat has helped us very much to open new markets.
Everybody here would agree with me that Dr. Brian Evans was the major salesman during BSE. I'm not sure he was home that much; I know I've seen the travel stickers on this briefcase. He did a fantastic job for us, and continues to. There's a tremendous amount of credibility here in the world as well as in Canada.
Certainly we've suffered a black eye, but when I talk to farmers, when I talk to processors, when I talk to consumers across this country—because I am the Minister of Agri-Food as well—they all tell me that they still respect and support the CFIA and the work they're doing. They all tell me to get past the politics of this issue and to move forward with the proper and practical application of what CFIA does in this great country.
We are expanding the testing capacity in our laboratories, and we are finding some tremendous slippage, as I'd call it. New equipment is required when you look at trying to identify the DNA fingerprint of listeria. I wasn't that great at chemistry in high school, and I don't think most of you were either, but the ability to do that, the quality of people we have and that we continue to have, just amazes me. We have to keep building that system.