Mr. Speaker, regarding a public inquiry, I was there. I sit on the agriculture committee and I also participated in the food safety subcommittee.
After hours and hours of testimony by a myriad of witnesses, not a single witness called for a public inquiry except for one, a very Liberal-friendly witness, one who has donated financially to the campaigns of the Liberal member in particular. That is important to note.
Yes, the food subcommittee did include a request to have a public inquiry in the report but that is only because the opposition are numerically superior on the subcommittee and on the main agriculture committee. That is why the recommendation was there.
The opposition called for a full meeting by the agriculture committee this summer. We did meet this summer. Another point regarding this meeting is that when the first report was released that finding was rammed through by the opposition before it had seen the independent report released by Ms. Sheila Weatherill.
When the opposition called for an additional meeting this summer, we and the opposition had an opportunity to look at the recommendations put forward by Ms. Weatherill as the independent investigator. Once the committee took into account what was in her report, all of the lessons learned report, all of the testimony that we heard in both the subcommittee and in the main committee, the committee passed a motion that a full public inquiry was definitely not necessary. In fact, that decision is being reported to the House.