Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This is an interesting discussion. Your comment, Mr. Charlebois, to be careful what you wish for.... You'd better look in the mirror on that one, because if you had an agency, a reincarnation of the CFIA set up to report to Parliament, you'd have one hell of a mess. It would be just unbelievable.
I think there are some lessons to be learned here, given what you're proposing, in terms of how this place works. We work in a system of ministerial accountability and responsibility.
I can tell that you haven't been in cabinet. Who's going to sit around the table and talk about reducing, improving, and changing regulations, on a daily basis or on a weekly basis? In my humble opinion, it just wouldn't work. It would be the worst system in the world, in my view. You'd have a bureaucracy run riot. So that's my point of view, to tell you where I sit on that.
In terms of some of the questions along the lines David was talking about--small plants, big plants--Michael McCain, when he was before us, talked about how maybe everyone should have to go to a federal standard in which everything is CFIA-inspected. I tell you, that would be great for the big boys like Maple Leaf.
Maybe you have these figures, because you researched this area. Where are most of the recalls in terms of the Canadian food safety system? I had a little operator call me from Ontario the other day, a sausage operator who is under provincial regulation. CFIA sent out the new reporting rules, which are clearly designed for a huge company. This is a two-man shop that produces a high-quality product from a local supply of meat. It has a local delivery system. They've certainly never had a recall in their lives. They're not the problem, but they're paying a heavy price in terms of burdensome paperwork designed for the national system, and so on.
When you compare provincial regulations to national regulations, where, in terms of a recall in the food system, are most of the recalls coming from? Are they coming from the small operators or the big operators in this country? Do you know?