Meat Inspection Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-571, An Act to amend the Meat Inspection Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Act (slaughter of equines for human consumption). Mr. Speaker, the bill I am proposing would prohibit the sending or conveying from one province to another, or the importing or exporting of horses or other equines for slaughter for human consumption, or the production of meat products for human consumption.

Bill C-571 An Act to amend the Meat Inspection Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Act (slaughter of equines for human consumption)

C-571 Second Session, Forty-first Parliament, 62 Elizabeth II, 2013-2014 HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA BILL C-571 An Act to amend the Meat Inspection Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Act (slaughter of equines for human consumption) first reading, January 29, 2014 Mr. Atamanenko 412125 SUMMARY This enactment amends the Meat Inspection Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Act to prohibit the sending or conveying from one province to another — or the importing or exporting — of horses or other equines for slaughter for human consumption or the production of meat products for human consumption.

Situation in Ukraine  Mr. Speaker, I will not take too much time because there are other questions that I am sure people want to ask. However, in this appeal, Ukrainians are demanding that the president, the cabinet and the ministers of the Ukraine immediately stop the violence that has been carried out by the ministry of internal affairs' security forces and hired criminal thugs.

Situation in Ukraine  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for once again initiating this debate and for his hard work on behalf of Ukrainians throughout the world. My family, like those of many Canadians, has suffered under the brutal Soviet regime. I heard stories when I first went there in 1971, and subsequently, of the brutality of the Soviet regime to the Ukrainian people.

Situation in Ukraine  Mr. Speaker, I would like to mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue. First off, I would to thank the member for Selkirk—Interlake and the member for Etobicoke-Centre for having requested tonight's emergency debate. It is of the utmost importance that we have such a debate tonight, because tomorrow morning, the Ukrainian Parliament will be in session.

Situation in Ukraine  Mr. Speaker, as a Canadian of Russian Ukrainian descent, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech and for his support for the Ukrainian people. I would also like to thank all the members of this House. Over the past few days, anti-government demonstrations have been taking place across central and western Ukraine.

Situation in Ukraine  Mr. Speaker, I would first like to congratulate my colleague on her recent election and thank her for her speech. One thing I have been thinking about during this whole debate and the tragedy that is happening is that Ukrainians are under the shadow of a very powerful Russia, which is attempting to dictate policy.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to the horse slaughter industry in Canada: (a) what is the government’s policy on requiring medical history on equine identity documents (EID) only for the last six months of a horse’s life, and not for an entire lifespan; (b) does the government have information on what happened to the meat from the racehorse Backstreet Bully, who had been administered several courses of a variety of banned medications throughout its lifetime, prior to being sold into the slaughter pipeline, and what are the details of Backstreet Bully’s EID and all other traceability documents and records; (c) does the government have information on what happened to the meat from the racehorse Silky Shark, who had been administered the drug phenylbutazone prior to being sold into the slaughter pipeline, and what are the details of Silky Shark’s EID and all other traceability documents and records; (d) what system is in place for owners to report the history of banned drugs they have administered to a horse that they previously owned, when they discover that a subsequent owner has sold that horse into the slaughter pipeline; (e) when such instances as mentioned in (d) are reported, and it is found that the meat was sold as human food, what system is in place to recall that meat from domestic and international retailers, (i) how many such instances have been reported, (ii) what were the results of the government’s investigations into these reports; (f) how does the government keep count of the number of horses being imported from the United States (U.S.) for slaughter; (g) how does the government explain the discrepancy between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)/Agriculture Canada and U.S.

Agriculture committee  We have mechanisms now if there's a perceived subsidy or products are being dumped, but often by the time things get rolling, whether there's a favourable decision or not, the farmer has already been hit, because it takes months to do that. I'm just wondering, even though it may look good on paper, if that may happen.

Agriculture committee  Do I understand correctly that perhaps if any part of our industry is going to suffer, it may be the greenhouse industry because of competition from the Netherlands? We probably won't be getting broccoli from Europe, but is there a danger for greenhouse produce?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Atamanenko. I'm sorry.

Agriculture committee  I want to welcome Ms. Morin to our committee. We'll start our round of questions with Mr. Atamanenko, please, for five minutes.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Thanks to the witnesses for being here. Mr. Kuhl, I gather from your statement that perhaps the greatest danger, if there are any dangers in this agreement, is for our exports going into Europe rather than imports coming here. I'll come back to that. When we sign trade agreements, we obviously hope that it will be an advantage to us; otherwise we wouldn't sign agreements.

Respect for Communities Act  Mr. Speaker, what is wrong with that? What is wrong when we have one level of government co-operating with other levels of government? That is our country. The federal government co-operates with the provinces, which co-operate with the cities, and we get something that works. InSite is an example of that.

Respect for Communities Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, and I will comment on what he said at the beginning of his statement. Personally, I think the government is saying, “If it works, we will fix it according to our ideological criteria.” We have noticed this attitude in the areas of the environment, science and foreign affairs.