Agriculture committee  I'll start, and my colleague from Health Canada can elaborate further. In terms of the makeup of the product in the marketplace, as noted, the product in the marketplace is not different from Atlantic salmon. The issue is not about the percentages in the makeup, because the product is equivalent to the product in the marketplace.

Agriculture committee  We expect data presented to us to come from an experimental design that's sound, because our own scientific experts are reviewing that data against.... We essentially go through the same process that would go into looking at information presented for a publication. As Karen mentioned in her remarks, in our review, we don't just say, “well, here's what the company's given us”; we're also looking at the wider scientific literature.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question, and indeed, let me also thank you for the kind words with respect to the work on continued trade with China in canola. That's incredibly valuable for the Canadian economy and I think a testament to excellent collaboration between industry and government in getting there, so I very much appreciate your words.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to the committee. It's a pleasure to be with you again. I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this study, and I would like to explain the CFIA's role when it comes to genetically modified, or GM, animals. The CFIA is a science-based regulatory agency dedicated to safeguarding plants, animals, and food.

Health committee  I wouldn't know the specifics of that particular issue. We do adjust inspection frequencies based on risk in different parts of the country, dependent on, for example, the level of production, the type of production, and where the product is intended to go.

Health committee  Our colleagues from Health Canada may wish to comment.

Health committee  The presentation of a product with a claim, with respect to any drug or drug related, is covered by Health Canada and not by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Our mandate extends to foods. It is true that a product can be both a food and a drug, but when that is the case, Health Canada manages it as a drug.

Health committee  I can certainly answer that. If you are processing meat and distributing it across a provincial or an international boundary without federal registration, we won't come in and inspect you, we'll come in and charge you.

Health committee  Thank you very much. Our oversight with respect to the Meat Inspection Act is our highest area of intensity, as I described earlier, because we have continuous presence in meat-slaughtering establishments in order for those establishments to be able to operate. That is a very significant proportion of the agency's activities.

Health committee  I believe it is. We have an obligation for not, as I said, just daily but every single shift, and many plants run more than one shift a day.

Health committee  That is being met.

Health committee  To be clear, the Safe Food for Canadians Act achieved royal assent in 2012, so it is passed. It is not yet in force. The regulatory framework that supports it has gone through the normal regulatory development and consultation process. It's our intent to present the regulations in part 1 of the Gazette later this year.

Health committee  Yes. It is not just every day, but every shift that occurs in a federally registered meat processing facility. CFIA is present in all processing plants that are federally registered.

Health committee  To clarify, for federally registered meat slaughter plants, there is continuous presence of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It's not just that they're present every day, but they're present for every minute that product is processed. For meat processing plants, CFIA inspectors visit those plants every day, every shift, but they are not present 100% of the time.

Health committee  As you can imagine, with a workforce the size of the agency's, we do have departures and hiring. Occasionally, there are vacancies, absolutely, and that fluctuation is also impacted by the seasonal business that the agency undertakes. There are certain areas of our inspection activities, for example, that are seasonal in nature because of the nature of the products that they're associated with, so we do see seasonal variations in terms of our workforce.