Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. Again, a risk-based approach would indicate there are certain locations that are going to be more problematic for risk in terms of things coming in. Dr. Evans mentioned that of course the plant health issue generally is not an issue, only of actual importations.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. You raise the issue of CFIA activities, the CFIA mandate, and you raise the issue of food safety. You are quite right, the CFIA has a primary mandate for food safety. We also have a mandate for animal welfare and plant health, and it is in this connection that the Auditor General has provided us with the audit on our plant health program.

Public Accounts committee  As the Auditor General mentioned, we have to adopt a risk management approach because it's impossible, frankly, whether it is a plant pest issue, an animal health issue, or even a food safety issue, to have zero risk. We need to look at the greatest area of risk. One of the things we found in our plant health program is if we can stop pests from coming into Canada in the first place, rather than inspecting at our borders, if we can assure ourselves that products coming from other countries are free of plant pests, that increases the chance that we will be able to keep these plant pests out of Canada.

Public Accounts committee  We absolutely agree with the Auditor General. As you have pointed out, we need to enhance our risk-based approach for pest surveillance. Right now we do some risk-based analysis based on country, based on the nature of the pest that is coming in. We absolutely agree, we need to get better at that.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee today. I am the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and I have with me several experts from the agency. We look forward to assisting the committee with its important work.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  On the last part of your question, the CFIA is committed to complete cooperation with the independent investigator.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  She's been meeting with a number of CFIA officials, and we've been providing a large amount of information to her.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you. Let me start by talking about the independence of CFIA, because it's something we really haven't discussed with this committee today in terms of the food recall. We have an Office of Food Safety and Recall that is in charge of doing our food safety recall when we have a suspicion that a food is the reason for a food-borne illness.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  There are many players who could have issued information. “Recall” implies that you know what specific food you're recalling, and you're able to tell consumers, “It is this product with this best-before date.” But there are many other opportunities for issuing information advisories to consumers.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Yes, you are correct.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Government is responsible for setting strong standards, monitoring industry, and holding them to account. Industry is responsible for producing safe food in this country.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Mr. Easter, responsibility for food safety does not reside in one person or one institution. There is a network of people and organizations responsible. Government has an important responsibility. We are responsible for setting strong standards and holding industry to account. But ultimately industry has responsibilities as well.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you, Monsieur Bellavance. I'm going to ask vice-president of operations, Cam Prince, who has a direct relationship with our inspection workforce, to answer your question specifically about the inspectors in the plant and the work they did.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Let me say that responsibility is shared across a number of fronts. It is government's basic responsibility to set standards for safe food, to hold industry accountable, to monitor, and to consequence industry when it fails to produce safe food. It is quite clearly industry's fundamental responsibility to produce safe food.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I have said, Mr. Bellavance, that there is a great deal of shared responsibility. CFIA is one player in a continuum of players who are responsible for making sure the food Canadians eat is safe. I can direct you to our “Lessons Learned” documents, which we worked at long and hard to make sure we could identify in the agency what had happened and what we could have done better.