I can tell you that, to this day, only one witness has come before this committee and accepted responsibility for the listeriosis crisis, and that was the president of Maple Leaf. Mr. McCain said that it was their fault and that they took the responsibility for it. But he is the only one who has said so.
The minister, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Public Health Agency have all said that the government has a role to play in food safety, but it is as if they are trying to keep themselves out of trouble. Whatever they say their position is, they certainly were not there when the drama unfolded. They do not want to take any responsibility and they wash their hands of it. At least, that is what emerges from the testimony that we have heard so far.
You have proposed potential solutions that are very interesting. For example, you say that some changes should be made, even though the agency is working relatively well. I must say that, in its report, the agency did make a kind of confession, even though it does not take responsibility for the crisis.
For example, the agency did not set up a control centre to manage the crisis. But a control centre is part of the crisis response plan. The agency also agreed that there were some problems in communication. Cameron Prince told us that they met inspectors who said that there were not enough of them at the site. Dr. Evans told us: “It is clear that collectively we did not meet the expectations of Canadians.“
So, that is a confession of sorts. In your potential solutions, you mentioned some changes that should be made, such as in the checks on imported meat. Ms. Fowlie could say the same thing for fruits and vegetables. We could improve the checks on products that come from outside, because you point out the lack of resources for inspections on the border.