Agriculture committee  We definitely heard about the onerous responsibility that this legislation puts on exporters, pilots and those who are associated with the industry. I certainly appreciate my colleague'S putting in some very stiff penalties, but again, this has now been banned. I don't think it's going to be any breeders now in operation, which is going to be another consequence of this legislation.

Agriculture committee  I will add that these fines are in line with what the Liberals put forward on Bill C-275. They're in line with what they supported in previous legislation.

Agriculture committee  Thanks. Maybe this is for some of our experts here. I'm not a transportation expert, but because we are leaving in the declaration subclause—“No departure without declaration”—and we removed the reference to pilots, I would like to ask a question of our clerk. Does any liability remain with the air traffic controller or the marshaller, or does that have to be specified?

Agriculture committee  Chair, I just want to make sure I'm clear on this. Mr. Louis, the concern that folks raised on this additional step was that there would have to be a declaration to the minister. In my opinion, you're making this more vague rather than more specific. I would have preferred that you got rid of this additional step entirely.

Agriculture committee  I have a procedural question. I'm looking at Monsieur Perron's amendments, BQ-4 and BQ-5, which also make some changes in terms of adding to the scope of the bill with regard to feeding and watering horses during transportation as well as having an attendant on the flight. Chair, if those two amendments were passed, changing the scope of the bill because they are specifically on those points, would that change the position of our amendment?

Agriculture committee  I appreciate your diligence, Mr. Chair, but I still want to challenge your decision on this, just as a matter of principle. Clearly the witnesses who were brought forward by the proponent of this legislation were very adamant that this was not about the end use of the horses but about the safety and welfare of the animals.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have an amendment on clause 4. I think everybody has the amendment in front of them. It was quite clear from the testimony of most of the witnesses who spoke as part of the study for this proposed legislation that the end use of the animals going to Japan wasn't their concern; their concern was animal welfare during the transportation of those horses to Japan.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Perron. Mr. MacGregor is giving back his two and a half minutes. I have a question from the previous chair for Ms. Cartwright. His question was this: You mentioned that there are ways to improve transportation regulations and make horse transportation safer, but you were saying that perhaps it wouldn't be economically feasible.

Agriculture committee  That's correct.

Agriculture committee  Ms. Cartwright, you also mentioned that the CFIA made changes that may not have been science-based and may have been coerced—that's probably not the right word—or lobbied by the animal food industry. Dr. Mary Jane Ireland, who has testified before this committee, is the chief veterinary officer of Canada and a delegate to the World Organisation for Animal Health.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Ms. Cartwright. That ends this group of witnesses. Thank you very much to all the witnesses who appeared with us today. Team, we'll allow our witnesses to leave. Before you take off, I have a couple of notes from the chair and the clerk. The deadline for the submission of amendments to Bill C-355 is on Thursday by four o'clock eastern time.

Agriculture committee  You're done.

Agriculture committee  Be very quick, Ms. Cartwright.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Mr. Perron, you have two and a half minutes.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm going to use my time to put forward a motion. All of us on this committee have received a number of letters over the last week or so. They were from the Ontario Minister of Agriculture; the Agriculture Alliance; the Vegetable Growers of Canada; Mushrooms Canada; the Western Stock Growers' Association; the Grain Farmers of Ontario, which represents 28,000 farm families; the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and the Wheat Growers Association.