Mr. Speaker, the director of meat inspection has said that up to 5% of the meat processed by XL Foods was contaminated with E. coli. If Canada had real regulations, all of the meat processed on the day that that threshold was passed would have been discarded. But thanks to the Minister of Agriculture, no such rule exists. It is up to the industry to decide what to do.
Even worse, the public was not informed of the danger posed by the tainted meat. That represents a serious breach of ethics and ministerial responsibility. The Minister of Agriculture has no other choice: he must step down.