Thank you.
Mr. Chair, when a new pest enters Canada, the first considerations are, of course, its distribution in Canada and the potential for establishment, its impacts, and potential pathways to spread. The CFIA, as the federal regulatory agency, regulates those behaviours that might contribute to spread and responds in the context of mitigation--eradication where eradication is possible, and where eradication is not possible, then in terms of minimizing that potential for spread.
What we don't have is a mandate for pest management in all of its senses, and that's why it's a partnered activity. We're guided, of course, by the Plant Protection Act as well as the International Plant Protection Convention. It falls to us, in that context, to respond. There are specific pests of quarantine significance around which we have particular obligations, and that is the role the agency plays in working with our partners within that shared jurisdiction.
As well, the invasive alien species strategy for Canada provides the framework for the collaborative response that we undertake and for the ongoing management of both forest or horticulture pests across the federal departments and agencies that would be involved and across other jurisdictions, like our provincial counterparts.