Mr. Speaker, as a cow producer and as a person who has taken a meat cutting class and spent time slaughtering my own beef at home, I can tell the House that there is a world of difference between the health controls in the smaller, local, community-type abattoirs versus what we see under the stringent controls of the federal government. There are different standards in this country from provincial to federal and the federal standards that we have for food inspection far exceed, from the standpoint of the technology used, the equipment and cleanliness that is required, and the inspection that is provided by the CFIA in federally inspected plants like XL Foods.
Let us talk about the facts. This plant used to have 38 meat inspectors, including 6 veterinarians. It went up to 8 veterinarians and a total of 46 inspectors in that facility, an increase of a net 8 more in that plant doing critical analysis of all of the product going through that plant on the lines to ensure that the meat going through was being inspected. Unfortunately, XL Foods did have some slippage.
What we need to remember here, and I want my hon. colleague to remember this, is that we want to ensure the consumer that mistakes sometimes happen, we need to recognize that, but the food system in Canada, 99% of the time, is safe. The produce that is being produced by our agricultural producers and the cattle producers that I represent and those across this country are producing a great--