President Kingston, welcome.
My question to you will be based on what appears to be a contradiction between the union and the management.
In the briefing note issued by the Agriculture Union on April 20, 2009, to the committee, on page 3 it stated:
Faced with budget constraints the CFIA has taken a variety of cost cutting measures such as banning overtime before last summer's tragedy. As a result, CFIA inspectors were unable to verify that pre-operation and sanitation inspections at Ready-to-Eat meat processing plants in Ontario and Quebec were properly conducted...including at the Maple Leaf plant that was the source of the contaminated product.
In reply, Mr. Cameron Prince, CFIA's vice-president of operations, told the committee on April 20, 2009:
Last summer there was really no change in terms of cancellation of overtime. In fact, we've always approved essential overtime.
He continued by saying:
The overtime policy did not get in the way of completion of the compliance verification tasks.
President Kingston, would you comment on what appears to be a contradiction between the union and the management?