Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd like to welcome and thank our witnesses for being here today.
First of all, I have to comment on the earlier question from the member of the NDP. It's a typical absurd NDP the world-is-falling kind of attitude on just about anything and everything. No organization, whether it's government or a branch of it, is ever perfect. I can tell you, as a farmer and a proud Canadian, our food supply in Canada is as safe as anywhere in the world. Sure there are issues that come up now and then, and you deal with them.
I bring that up because Mr. Christopherson tried to lead us to believe this was about food, and it's not. It's about pests that come in. The Auditor General, Ms. Fraser, even verified what I just said. If he wants to know about food safety, there's a subcommittee on food safety currently under way. You have a member who sits on it. We're very close to completing our study, and there will be a report.
To listen to Mr. Christopherson you'd think the pests that come into this country all show up at a border crossing with a suitcase. It doesn't work like that. I know that may be hard for him to believe, but I think we need to point that out. Pests don't just come in at border crossings; they can come in on their own, or I presume they can.
How do we monitor how pests come in here? We know they can come by water, air, or however. Could you comment on that?