Mr. Speaker, Battle River—Crowfoot is proud to produce some of the best beef in the world, yet it is still recovering from the BSE crisis that nearly devastated the industry a decade and a half ago. However, on this road to recovery it was dealt a significant setback when the Liberals missed a simple deadline to apply to the World Organisation for Animal Health for negligible risk status. Alberta ranchers are suffering due to this Liberal mistake.
Could the Minister of Agriculture please explain to the Canadian beef industry simply why this deadline was missed?