Madam Speaker, the Minister of Health has taken the question raised by the member for Winnipeg North Centre very seriously. He also took very seriously the petition signed by over 200 employees of the food directorate, and told them that food safety is vital for the minister and the department.
The employees of the food directorate recently met with senior management, and the minister totally supports the dialogue that followed.
We feel as well that the recent appointments of Dr. Le Maguer, an internationally renowned scientist, to head the food directorate and of Dr. Mohamed Karmali, a former member of the science advisory board of Health Canada, as head of the Guelph laboratory and specialist in diseases of the digestive tract, signal clearly Health Canada's commitment to scientific excellence and to the renewal of the food surveillance program.
Allow me to reiterate the commitments made in the October 12 throne speech on strategic investments in health research and technology, and in the improvement of Health Canada's Canadian food safety program and the investments that will modernize our health protection activities to better mirror our changing world. These ongoing commitments to food safety justify the $65 million announced in the last federal budget.
When parliament established the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in 1997, it set up a review system under which the Minister of Health is responsible for developing policies and standards relating to food safety and nutrition, and for evaluating the effectiveness of the agency's activities in the area of food safety. Health Canada is very diligently fulfilling these commitments.