House of Commons Hansard #164 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was cfia.

Topics

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:30 p.m.

NDP

Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC

Mr. Speaker, I would like the Conservative member to understand that it would be preferable if he were to inform us in advance before making a request for unanimous consent in the House.

I was interested to hear that he was very proud of the fact there is now a rapid response. I would like him to explain what a rapid response is. What is an acceptable response if the government had known for over two weeks that there was a problem and people were getting sick? It seems to me that its rapid response was rather slow.

Would he please define what rapid response is so that the people who got sick through this crisis will actually understand it? Perhaps they got sick a little too soon.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would let the hon. member know with regard to our request for unanimous consent that we have actually read the motion to the House several times today, and his own House leader read a very similar one. We have to be realistic. If we would like to move this issue forward, why does the NDP keep voting against our motion?

Of course, I do not accept the premise of his question. It is incorrect. Food safety officials learned of concerns with some products on September 4. They acted based upon the information available and contained that batch. Since then, the CFIA has been responding to available information in order to protect consumers, and the Public Health Agency of Canada has been engaged on this since it was contacted by the CFIA on September 6.

Actually, the minister has offered more information to the opposition. One of the important things that opposition members should know is that they should become informed about the protocols and exactly what happened in this situation. They should not be out there fear-mongering.

I think all of us want the health and safety of Canadians held as a high priority and it is important that all of us become educated about the system out there and how it works, in order to keep our constituents informed about the very important issue of food safety.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:35 p.m.

Liberal

Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC

Mr. Speaker, I actually quite enjoyed listening to the parliamentary secretary's speech. Maybe it is because it is the one I made this morning, outlining FIORP and the responsibilities of the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Minister of Health and the Department of Health. Obviously, someone found the document and read it in the ministry of health

My question repeats that of my colleague from the New Democratic Party earlier today. If they knew that this was the protocol, which was written incidentally in 1999, why is it that the only time we saw anything on the website of Health Canada and the Public Health Agency was on September 27? What about warning Canadians? What about putting out something that says, “Please be aware there is an enteric illness. If you have one, please let us know”? What about sending it out to hospitals and doctors, saying, “If you have a person with an enteric illness, please let us know”?

That is called surveillance. Why did they not--

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

Order, please.

I need to give the parliamentary secretary a little time to answer the question.

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:35 p.m.

Conservative

Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, as soon as we became aware of it, we did act.

I think what the member has to understand and realize is that Canada has one of the safest food systems in the entire world. We have learned from the listeriosis issue in 2008. We have worked with Ms. Weatherill and her report to implement those recommendations and we have shown that we have actually been able to respond more quickly.

Again, the health and safety of Canadians is our priority and we will continue to work with our partners to ensure that we still have one of the safest food systems in the world.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:35 p.m.

Calgary Centre-North Alberta

Conservative

Michelle Rempel ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment

Mr. Speaker, my colleague does a lot of work on the health portfolio in his role as parliamentary secretary. Perhaps he could speak to some of the good work that CFIA does in partnership with Health Canada, some of the investment measures we put forward in the budgets over the last few years to help increase food safety and ensure that Canada's food safety stays at that superior rating, which the OECD report mentioned very recently.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:35 p.m.

Conservative

Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON

Mr. Speaker, this government has been acting in a coordinated fashion. In fact, we have made huge investments in more inspectors, and each time we have made an investment to improve food safety, the opposition has voted against it. That is very sad for Canadians because there is a lot of talk going on in this House, but when it comes to action, Canadians can count on this government to take action for food safety and they can count on the opposition to vote against it.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:35 p.m.

Calgary Centre-North Alberta

Conservative

Michelle Rempel ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise and speak in the House. On the topic today, it is important to know that whenever there is a food recall of unsafe products it does cause concern for Canadians about our food safety system. But what Canadians need to know is that we have one of the best food safety systems in the world. Our recall system is proof positive that our food safety system is functional. It catches problems, it alerts us to problems and it alerts Canadians to things they need to know about their food supply.

I mentioned this earlier in my question to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, but a recent OECD report recognized Canada's superior food safety system. So there is international recognition that Canada does have stringency in food safety rules, in inspection and in making sure that Canadian consumers have that right, have that access to safe food.

However, no system is foolproof and there are clear safeguards in place to detect problems and clear procedures and policies to address these problems as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Canadians expect safe and healthy food, and this is why our government has heavily invested in strengthening Canada's food safety system and has introduced Bill S-11, Safe Food for Canadians Act. It would strengthen our ability to trace and recall foods, including the authority to allow the creation of tracing systems and stronger record maintenance requirements; enhance food safety oversight, including new prohibitions targeting unsafe practices such as tampering, hoaxes and deceptive practices; reduce regulatory duplication; increase co-operation among food safety authorities; provide standardization and uniformity in the way CFIA carries out its inspection and enforcement duties; provide stronger import controls on food coming into Canada; further align our food safety systems to those of our key trading partners; and provide the authority to provide export certification for all food. I am very glad to highlight these things in the House today.

These are great things. These are timely to issues that are going on in our country right now, and I find it very unfortunate that my colleagues opposite are not willing to expedite the bill's passage through the House of Commons. I really do not understand their rationale for doing this, and I hope that one of them can accurately speak to this today because I have not heard any good rationale whatsoever in the debate today.

Bill S-11 builds on our government's already strong track record of investment and policy-making in Canada's food safety system, including delivering the biggest budgets ever for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency—budget 2011 in fact committed an additional $100 million over five years to the CFIA to improve food safety capacity—establishing guidelines for product of Canada/made in Canada labelling; funding the Canadian integrated food safety initiative to the tune of $47.16 million under Growing Forward to support the development of food safety and traceability systems by national organizations.

Highlights of this initiative include up to $7 million for the Canadian Pork Council to strengthen the national swine traceability system; up to $2 million in funding for the Canadian Animal Health Coalition for the West Hawk Lake zoning initiative, which will help to monitor the movement of animals and agricultural products between eastern and western Canada; and up to $4.45 million to help the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency to strengthen livestock traceability.

There are so many things that our government has invested in for food safety, and with this new legislation that is about to come to this place, I feel our government is getting it done with regard to food safety. However that said, we also understand that there are three pillars of food safety in this country. There are three different groups that play active roles in this. Consumers have a role, industry has a role and so does government. When we look at industry's roles, we see that all federal government inspected meat and fish processing facilities must follow strict guidelines and rules for food safety. This involves identifying what can go wrong, planning to prevent a problem and taking action where a problem is identified.

Industry must not only ensure a culture of food safety and consumer protection from the top leadership through to employees, but it must adopt a science-based risk management practice to minimize food safety risks.

To that end, industry works to identify potential sources of food contamination, update production practices to reduce risk, comply with inspection and testing protocols and pull unsafe products from the market.

Again, going back to the government's role on this, it begins with effective laws and then CFIA delivers all federally mandated programs for food inspection, plant and animal health products and production systems.

As Canada's largest science-based regulator, the CFIA holds industry to account for the safety of its products, responds to food safety emergencies, carries out food recalls and prevents the spread of animal disease to humans.

Given the complexity of this mandate, as we were saying earlier, the CFIA works with a variety of partners including Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

One of CFIA's key jobs is to inspect both domestic and imported food. It also inspects audits and tests products to verify that industry is complying with food safety regulations, and it enforces those regulations in federally regulated food processing facilities.

Once the food safety system has identified a contaminated food product in the marketplace, an investigation takes place that can lead to a food recall. More often than not, under the CFIA's direction, industry itself takes charge and carries out the recall of its food product.

In fact, it is extremely rare for a firm to be found unwilling to remove an affected product. In these cases, the CFIA can issue a mandatory recall letter. The agency can also seize affected products and prosecute any firms that do not comply with recall orders. Again, this is an example of Canada's very safe, very effective food safety regulations.

When dealing with potentially unsafe food, the CFIA's investigations are driven by three imperatives in ensuring the safety of the food supply: accuracy, thoroughness and timeliness. As one can imagine, the gathering of facts is critical to a science-based thorough investigation.

Thus, the CFIA must achieve two objectives in such a situation. It must undertake a robust review process that produces accurate and reliable information, because there is an impact on the outcome of this investigation both to consumers and industry, while ensuring that the public is informed as soon as possible about potential risks.

To achieve this balance, the CFIA issues regular alerts for recalled products even while an investigation is ongoing. As a result, it may issue several public alerts for the same recall. Once a product is known to pose a health risk, it is recalled immediately.

This is an important point: the series of expanded alerts issued over the past few weeks related to the XL Foods recall reflect the new information obtained during the course of a continuing science-based investigation. The timing of these notices is a normal part of the recall process.

It is important to note that the XL Foods plant will not be allowed to reopen until the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has certified it is safe. At the moment, XL Foods continues to work with the CFIA to identify and trace contaminated food products that might be in the market.

At the plant right now, the CFIA's immediate focus is to verify that XL Foods has put measures in place and follows those measures to effectively control E. coli contamination at all stages of production.

As an Albertan and someone who is also concerned about food safety, I know this is a delicate balance. We want to make sure the plant is producing food that meets our stringent food safety guidelines but is also cognizant of the workers and cattle ranchers in this country who depend on that plant to get their product to market.

I want to emphasize that, first and foremost, we need to make sure the food is safe. Our agents and inspectors who are there right now are working with the company to make sure that the stringent food safety standards that we all expect are in place before the plant reopens. I want to make sure, for my constituents and those across the country, that everyone realizes that this is something that everyone in this House, including our government, is committed to. We certainly hope it takes place as soon as possible.

To conclude, this is why the passage in this House of Bill S-11, the bill we were talking about earlier, is so important. The amalgamation and streamlining of food safety regulations, which are currently set up under separate umbrellas, is accounted for in the bill. It is something that needs to happen quickly. I certainly hope my colleagues opposite will take the opportunity to expedite the passage of this bill.

As my colleague before me did, I would like to ask for unanimous consent in the House for the following motion:

That notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice of the House, Bill S-11, an Act respecting food commodities, including their inspection, their safety, their labelling and advertising, their import, export and interprovincial trade, the establishment of standards for them, the registration or licensing of persons who perform certain activities related to them, the establishment of standards governing establishments where those activities are performed and the registration of establishments where those activities are performed, be deemed read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

Does the parliamentary secretary have unanimous consent?

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

There is no consent.

The hon. member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour is rising on a point of order.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Robert Chisholm NDP Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to make a suggestion in response to what the government has offered.

I believe if you seek it you will find unanimous consent for a motion that is similar if not the same as the one that was just voted down. It says: That notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice of the House, this House move immediately to debate second reading of Bill S-11, that today's order for supply be deemed to have not been called and that the order for the putting of the question on the supply motion and the deferral of the vote be deemed to have been withdrawn.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

Does the hon. member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour have the unanimous consent of the House to propose this motion?

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB

Mr. Speaker, I think that shows the sincerity in bringing forward their motion.

When one of our fellow colleagues from Alberta spoke in the House, he made the suggestion that perhaps it was the workers' fault and that they had the option of bringing to the attention of the company issues they found on the floor.

I wonder if the member would like to respond to the information provided to me by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union who has said that it had tried to reach out to the workers, particularly temporary foreign workers who may be struggling, but that it had been denied that information by the company and, therefore, could not reach out to the workers. It also called for whistleblower protection legislation, which is not found in this bill, so workers could feel free to reveal these issues.

Does the member agree that this law should be amended to provide whistleblower protection to all workers in food operations?

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB

Mr. Speaker, to characterize my comments as saying that it was the workers' fault is both insensitive and inaccurate. I cannot believe the member opposite is making politics with workers who are caught in this situation when we are trying to fix it, and when the CFIA is there working to ensure that the plant opens up with safety and rigour so it can continue to operate for the long-term safety of workers.

Moreover, as a member from Alberta, I cannot believe she would have the audacity to stand and constantly argue against Canada's energy sector, pit eastern workers against western workers and talk about workers' rights in Alberta.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Liberal

Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON

Mr. Speaker, the member keeps perpetuating this ruse that started this morning that Bill S-11 is the panacea for food safety. Interestingly, it was in the Senate and the Senate could have passed it last spring. The Senate does not have a school term schedule. It stays at the will of Parliament. The Prime Minister could have asked the Senate to stay and pass the bill and then return it to the House but he chose not to.

I want to inform the member that section 13 of the Meat Inspection Act provides the CFIA with all the authority it needs to impose regulations and require compliance by the industry with all the rules. It was repeated in “A Processor's Guide to Inspection” sent by her government to the processors in February of this year. That is why Cargill is running well and why all the other abattoirs are running well.

I would encourage the member to be a little dissuaded, to stop with the talking points and to understand that Bill S-11 is not the answer.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB

Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that my colleague opposite is talking about talking points from a sheet of talking points.

The Senate bill review took 22 sitting days. That is what we are looking at. This bill moved quite quickly through the Senate with, I believe, verbal support from some of his colleagues in the Liberal Party in the Senate. I think there is a recognition of how timely and important this legislation is to Canada, especially given the situation in Alberta. I certainly hope that I have agreement from all of my colleagues to proceed with this in a timely manner in this place.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Glengarry—Prescott—Russell Ontario

Conservative

Pierre Lemieux ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture

Mr. Speaker, I wish the opposition would act for food safety rather than just follow through with partisan politics like it is doing today.

Demanding the resignation of the minister is right out of opposition playbook 101. We actually have a bill in front of Parliament today, Bill S-11. There was discussion among House leaders this morning to move that bill to committee for an in-depth review and not have it sit in the House for debate but opposition members keep saying no. They have been asked time and time again.

I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the cheap partisan politics that the opposition is playing with Canadians' food safety and with an important bill that is in front of Parliament now.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

Conservative

Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to personally thank my colleague for all the excellent work that he has done on this file. He has done a lot of good work in communicating the facts on this case to Canadians.

With regard to his point, this legislation is vital. It is something that addresses an issue of concern to Canadians. I agree with him that this needs to transcend partisanship and that all parties should agree to move this to committee as quickly as possible.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

3:50 p.m.

NDP

Marie-Claude Morin NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to say that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona.

I will get right to the heart of the matter. In my riding of Saint-Hyacinthe, doctors and nurses at the Honoré-Mercier hospital witnessed first-hand the Conservatives' failure with regard to food safety. In early October, they had to care for the first victims of the tainted meat scandal in Quebec.

After eating ground beef from Alberta's XL Foods, the victims, a man and a woman from the Montérégie area, had to go to the hospital urgently. They were both infected with E. coli and suffered terribly.

The couple, who are originally from Beloeil, had labour-like cramps, intense diarrhea and a fever. The man was affected more severely and had to be hospitalized for several days. He was in such agony that he needed morphine every two hours to control the pain. The only thing they could do was wait. This man, like his wife before him, had to get rid of the bacteria naturally. The only things that eased the pain were morphine and water. But the worst was yet to come. Over the course of his treatment, his condition worsened. He experienced intestinal paralysis and had difficulty breathing. The doctors even considered removing his large intestine. Believe me: having your large intestine removed changes your life.

His battle lasted five days. Five days of pain, but he made it through, even though he never thought he would. The worst part is that this couple has two young boys, aged 18 months and three years. Can anyone imagine what an E. coli infection could have done to these two little ones? I cannot, and I do not want to know.

Doctors at the Honoré-Mercier hospital can speak to the failure of the Minister of Agriculture. They saw the horror. And, I repeat, this horror was avoidable. The Minister of Agriculture said too early that his government had fixed the problem. That had tragic consequences across the country.

I will remind members of the facts. Canada is currently experiencing the largest beef recall in its history. Fifteen cases of people infected with E. coli were linked to the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta, and more than 1,800 products were recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because they were contaminated with the bacteria.

The XL Foods plant produces over 40% of the beef in Canada. This has even more tragic consequences for Canadian beef producers and for the 2,900 employees who work at the plant. All of this could have been avoided if the Minister of Agriculture had acted when he was supposed to.

Two weeks passed before the government issued a recall of the tainted meat, even though a problem was identified on September 3. If a recall had been ordered immediately, the couple from Beloeil may not have been infected. I would even go so far as to say that they probably would not have been.

Canadians and food workers are demanding better protection from this government by means of a better monitoring system. Must I remind members that the beef industry is just getting back on its feet in the aftermath of the mad cow crisis? It needs clear, reliable rules, and so do consumers.

The NDP understands that, which is why we are demanding three things of the government. First, the Minister of Agriculture must resign and be replaced by someone who can restore public trust. The facts support that. On September 26, the minister said that no contaminated meat had made it to the shelves. In the meantime, Canadians were getting sick. This is the same minister who made jokes while more than 22 Canadians died from the listeriosis crisis. He has truly lost public trust and must be replaced immediately.

Next, the NDP is calling on the government to cancel the budget cuts to the CFIA. The agency must be given the resources it needs to carry out its mandate on behalf of all Canadians. Its mandate is simple: ensure food safety in the food industry.

Recent events demonstrated the importance of making sure the CFIA is able to do a good job.

The CFIA is extremely important both in Canada and in my riding. The region of Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot has always been proud of having a regional office. The CFIA operations centre in Saint-Hyacinthe is affiliated with the University of Montreal's faculty of veterinary medicine. The two organizations work on common issues in both research and development.

My riding is also proud to be the home of the Centre d'insémination artificielle du Québec, the CIAQ. It accounts for 45% of the Canadian insemination market. Cutbacks to our CFIA operations centre could significantly compromise the quality of the product the CIAQ offers.

Saint-Hyacinthe is one of Quebec's most important regions in terms of agricultural production. The CFIA's services are, therefore, crucial to the region, which relies heavily on economic activity tied to agriculture.

It is a simple equation. Cutbacks to the CFIA mean job losses in my riding and economic losses in my region. Moreover, cutbacks open the door to less rigorous inspections and a greater likelihood that Canadians will fall ill and die. This is not what Canadians want.

The Conservatives must, therefore, take responsibility for slashing the resources allocated to food safety. The cutbacks were not insignificant: the budget was slashed by $56.1 million, and hundreds of jobs at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency were culled.

Everybody knows that the Conservatives were fighting for greater self-regulation, but the inspectors are now poring over paperwork rather than inspecting meat. The problems that we are currently facing in terms of food safety are the direct result of the Conservatives’ incompetence, and particularly that of the Minister of Agriculture.

Once again, Canadians are paying the price. This is why, third, we are calling on the auditor general to immediately carry out an audit of food safety procedures and submit a report to Parliament.

It is high time that Canadians be once again able to trust in the food safety system. The health of Canadian families is at stake. These families should be able to trust Canadian products. Food safety is also crucial to producers who want to be able to sell top-quality products.

We are therefore calling for an immediate review of the compliance verification system, as suggested by the Weatherill report on the listeriosis crisis, which cost the lives of 22 Canadians in 2008.

After the events of last month, we can no longer afford to wait years before improving the system. It is a matter of urgency. The doctors and nurses at Honoré-Mercier hospital do not want to have to deal with any more cases of E. coli bacteria contamination. Now is the time to act.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

4 p.m.

Glengarry—Prescott—Russell Ontario

Conservative

Pierre Lemieux ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture

Mr. Speaker, as I listened to the opposition speeches, I could not help but note the many inaccuracies communicated by the opposition. The member made one in her speech when she said that the minister said that no products made it to the store shelves and yet Canadians are sick.

If the member had done even the smallest amount of research she would have known that when the minister made that remark he was talking about the batch that was sampled on September 4 and tested positive on September 4. I invite her to check Hansard and take a moment to actually read what the minister said. It is important, because if the member knows what days of production were affected by the recall she will know that September 4 was not one of them. I would like to know how she responds to this promulgating of inaccurate statements.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

4 p.m.

NDP

Marie-Claude Morin NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Speaker, I am not prepared to correct the so-called inaccuracies of my speech because my team and I did our research. We did our jobs. I have a team behind me and that team assisted me greatly. My colleagues also did their research. So, I do not really see what the problem is. The minister made a statement and he has to deal with the consequences. Period. People got sick. The minister must resign. The buck stops with him, period.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

4 p.m.

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB

Mr. Speaker, back in the mid-1990s former prime minister Jean Chrétien made a great effort to bring in something that would ultimately provide assurances with respect to safeguarding our food products. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency was created by Mr. Chrétien in recognition of how important it is to ensure that we have safe food. All in all, the agency has done a phenomenal job, given the resources that it has.

The concern is that the agency needs to have the resources necessary to assure Canadians that a food product is of good quality so that we can prevent things of this nature from taking place in the first place. When it does occur, the government has an obligation to be forthright and transparent with Canadians, thereby protecting their health and also protecting stakeholders and industries, such as our cattlemen in the Prairies.

Opposition Motion--Food SafetyBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

4:05 p.m.

NDP

Marie-Claude Morin NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

Mr. Speaker, I did not hear a question in the remarks my colleague just made. We need an effective system to protect Canadians. We do not want any more people to get sick because of the negligence of an incompetent minister, whose resignation we have been calling for for weeks. Quite frankly, I do not know what he is still doing here.

I am calling on the government to act. This is 2012, and it is important to make sure that people do not continue to get sick. This is an industrialized country; something needs to be done!