Mr. Speaker, on April 20, I asked two questions to the government concerning the criticism of the Ontario chief medical officer of health, who in the report his office released stated clearly that the federal government, specifically this minister given the responsibility for food safety, had failed Canadians during the listeriosis crisis of 2008, which resulted in the deaths of 22 people.
The questions raised in April have yet to be answered. The only recourse to the government's refusal to respond to serious concerns is for there to be a full inquiry under the federal Inquiries Act. The Conservatives on the agriculture committee, and indeed the government itself, refuse to allow a full public inquiry to occur. They used a parliamentary manoeuvre, leaving the impression of a reversal of a majority vote of the agriculture committee calling for a full public inquiry.
This manipulated majority does not reflect the true majority on the committee. In fact, the original report of the subcommittee calling for a full public inquiry after months of hearings still stands, but we have yet to hear the government response on that report.
The fact that the government went to such lengths to manipulate an outcome tells us more about the Conservatives' desperate determination to avoid a full public inquiry. The question is, why? What is the government really afraid of?
There would appear to be a number of reasons.
Remember that this is a government that called a full public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, in which a former prime minister is alleged to have taken money from a German businessman two decades ago. No one was injured. No one died. That full public inquiry is into the possible sleazy activities of a Conservative prime minister.
Last Friday the government issued its response to the listeriosis crisis by implementing the Weatherill report. While the official opposition has indicated that a number of recommendations in the Weatherill report are worthy of consideration, the statement of the government reinforces the need for a full public inquiry.
For example, in the Weatherill report, Ms. Weatherill claims that it will take a third-party auditor to find out the numbers of inspectors.
On July 21, the minister said it was impossible to determine how many meat inspectors there are. That is interesting, considering that the CFIA told the subcommittee on April 20, 2009, that there were 1,467 meat inspectors. On May 14, the minister told the House that half of the 3,228 inspectors were involved in meat inspection.
So who misled with Ms. Weatherill: the minister, the CFIA, or both?
I guess it is simple. The fact is that the government does not have the numbers right and cannot report to Parliament in a direct fashion.
On another matter, I asked the government in April why it did not take action when it was first notified of the crisis on July 29, 2008, yet CFIA claims they were informed only on August 6. Testimony before committee showed that those were the facts as alleged by the Ontario ministry, yet it is not even mentioned in the Weatherill report. Why? If it was before our committee, why the discrepancies in the two committee reports?
In closing, the bottom line is that there are all kinds of areas where there are discrepancies. Why is the government avoiding a public inquiry?