Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you. Let me start, and I will ask Ryan to provide some additional detail. You are quite right, food safety is an important, shared responsibility among a number of federal partners, provincial partners, municipal partners, and industry, as we've heard as well. The challenge is to make sure that people pursue their responsibilities and carry out their tasks with as much coordination as possible.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  It is government oversight, absolutely. One of the things we found during this particular outbreak was that it was important for CFIA to bring people together. We did, in fact, starting on August 13, as I think you will have seen in our chronology, bring together all the partners to make sure there was a common base of understanding and that the facts were shared appropriately among all partners in the food safety chain.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I think all partners in food safety would accept responsibility: the CFIA, other federal agencies, provincial ministries of health, and industry, as we've heard today. We all have a role to play in making sure food is safe for Canadians.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee. My name is Carole Swan and I'm the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. We look forward to assisting the committee with its important work. Let me start by saying how saddened and disheartened all of us at the CFIA are by the food-related illnesses experienced last year.

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Minister. Sure. As the minister has said, we have a system where, in order to export, countries come and look at our establishments. And it is reciprocal; we go and look at theirs. Deficiencies are found. Some of them are quite minor. For the more significant ones, action is taken immediately.