Thank you. I'll be brief.
I appreciate the opportunity to come back today after Friday's abrupt closure of the meeting.
On the topic and the question asked, across the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe we represent the food service distribution logistics business, supplying food products to the food-away-from-home industries that we all enjoy, whether it's restaurants or hotels, as well as health care locations and whatnot.
In particular to this question, we faced challenges a few times recently due to extreme wildfires and flooding in Alberta and British Columbia. The challenges we faced and suggestions related to access into and out of the U.S. of North American food products in order to serve British Columbia more effectively in a crisis were highlighted.
As we think about the challenges and the recent appointment of a minister of crisis management, the recommendation is to look at ways to work in co-operation with the U.S. border and the U.S. government to expedite decisions on opening and allowing the free movement of food and emergency goods into and out of our countries in a crisis. This is the topic we bring to the table as being important.
We don't have suggestions on how to build second and third rail lines and highways into and out of British Columbia. That's the real problem that exists. That's why we have this challenge today. It comes back to allowing a swift and efficient opening and closure of border access.
We found that during the most recent challenges—the floods in British Columbia—the Canadian government was very supportive of conversations for working through border access into and out of Canada to allow support for B.C., but the pandemic challenges at the same time created the red tape that prevented us from moving into and out of the province swiftly.
Food needs to move by the hour, not by the month. Especially in a crisis, in getting food to hospitals and locations in dire situations in British Columbia, we were hindered by these challenges. That's—