Mr. Speaker, in response to a question asked by my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food said that his responsibility in all of this was limited to simply developing regulations and verifying legislation to ensure that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can do its job.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is not a crown corporation. It is not a corporation that operates at arm's length. It is a government agency that reports directly to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Yet the minister himself is saying that he does not have the authority to instruct the CFIA to do something to prevent this sort of thing from happening when information becomes available.
I wonder if my colleague from Vancouver Centre could tell us her thoughts on the question of ministerial responsibility. In her opinion, what is the role of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in a situation like this one?