Agriculture committee  That's a great segue to my next question, Ms. Fitzgerald. As Ms. Noble said earlier with respect to cattle feeders, there's some missing data in Canada, which is making it difficult for Transport Canada to understand the situation we're dealing with. How often do these extenuating or emergency situations occur?

Agriculture committee  Thanks very much, Chair. I appreciate your clarifying the goal of the study that we're undertaking. Ms. Fitzgerald, we did ask this question in the previous panel, but I know, certainly with your expertise on this.... One of the comments we're getting from Transport Canada officials is that those who are moving animals should just plan their route better.

Agriculture committee  It was an interesting last comment there from Ms. Lockwood. I appreciated that. Ms. Lockwood, did your flock test positive for AI during the outbreak in 2023 or 2022?

Agriculture committee  That is very good. I'm glad to hear that. I just wanted to make sure from what your comments were. On that, you were mentioning other opportunities or alternatives for depopulation. You had mentioned the mental health impact this had on producers who were having to euthanize entire flocks.

Agriculture committee  You made a good point there. We were also hearing that CFIA did not have sufficient stores of CO2 on hand. Maybe I'll ask you, as well as Mr. Lampron and Mr. Berrigan from CFA. Has that been resolved? It seems to me we're talking about biosecurity preparedness and ensuring that CFIA has the resources on hand to address these types of outbreaks when they occur.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Ms. Lockwood, I have a bit of time left here, so I'm going to go to my last question. You mentioned the importance of preventing unwanted guests and protesters from coming onto your farm. We just passed Bill C-275 in this committee, which will put substantial fines on people who would come onto private property and protest on your farm or in your barn.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Berrigan, I'll turn again to you and the CFA. How important is a tool such as Bill C-275 in helping to ensure the biosecurity and the protection of our food supply on Canadian farms? How important is it to see this go through third reading and royal assent? We're close, but we're not there yet.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. Alistair pretty much said exactly what I was going to say, but maybe with a different conclusion. Yes, the reason that we have the fines and the penalties that are in this amendment is that they match exactly what's already in the Health of Animals Act, but the reason we had to bring this forward as part of this clause was that we added the fines and penalties to the corporations part, which is not in the Health of Animals Act at this time.

Agriculture committee  I will formally propose and table our amendment, which everyone has in front of them. This is a compromise on everything we've spoken about—except, maybe, for one of Alistair's—and it does a good job of bringing NDP-2 and G-2 together. It removes the word “reckless” and addresses some of the questions we had.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate my NDP colleague's concern, but again, when we did the language of this legislation, it's not that we were just inventing things that weren't already in the Health of Animals Act. Subsection 7(2) of the Health of Animals Act has language about “Notice forbidding entry without permission”.

Agriculture committee  To Mr. Carr's question, we went through a lot of work—and I know that some other amendments may come forward—to try to keep this away from the Criminal Code and to keep it just on the Health of Animals Act. Everything we have in this proposed legislation specifically puts biosecurity into existing portions of the Health of Animals Act.

Agriculture committee  No, that's not what I said.

Agriculture committee  Yes. I'll just respond to Mr. Carr's question. I think, as I had mentioned, that to try to get us to where we can all reasonably agree, I'm willing to take out the word “reckless”. I understand the concerns around that and maybe the proof of that. That's in G-2, I believe, as well as adding some language from NDP-2 in there in terms of the capability of “affecting or contaminating”.

Agriculture committee  Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate what my colleague Mr. Carr is trying to accomplish. I guess my concern is that it goes far beyond what we are trying to accomplish. We are trying to keep this very simple and focus on one aspect of the Health of Animals Act. I appreciate your point here.

Agriculture committee  To answer Ms. Taylor Roy's question, every PMB or piece of legislation that comes through is vetted for jurisdictional and constitutional validity, as this one has been. The procedural clerk will confirm that, I'm sure, if we have any questions along those lines. To ask if this bill is impinging on provincial jurisdiction or is constitutional...that's already been vetted.