Mr. Speaker, I cannot explain why it took the minister two weeks, and I suffer from the same lack of information from the Conservative government that my hon. friend does. That is why we need the audit. That is why we need funds restored to the CFIA. I quite agree with the member. Therein lies the lapse in our food safety system. Therein lies the responsibility that should have been undertaken by this minister much soon than he did. The Americans beat us at every single point, from finding the E. coli to closing the plant down. We did not even exercise a recall until fully three days after the Americans shut the plant down.
In the House of Commons on October 18th, 2012. See this statement in context.