Agriculture committee  With regard to regulatory co-operation, Canada has been successful in elaborating a comprehensive organic standard, and inherent in the elaboration of that standard is the pursuit of equivalency agreements with jurisdictions. Again, we work with the industry to identify where their priorities are in terms of markets, and then we pursue negotiations with those markets to maximize the alignment between the Canadian standard and their organic requirements in order to give them assurance that products produced according to Canada's organic standard meet the requirements for the claim of organic in their market.

Agriculture committee  I don't think I can add further to your point, Greg. We have cheese compositional standards, and there is a commitment with respect to their enforcement. In the interest of time I won't add further to that.

Agriculture committee  We would be delighted to take any questions.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will start with the video, which gives an overview of what the Canadian Food Inspection Agency does. [Audiovisual presentation]

Health committee  Thank you very much, Chair. On the animal health and zoonosis program, again, as explained by the CFO, when one compares estimates to the report on plans and priorities, you end up with these differences. But the reality is that, in the animal health and zoonosis program, if one looks at it in the context of the RPP, it actually shows an increase in both direct budget and FTEs from the 2014-15 period to the 2015-16 period.

Health committee  In the agency we take a risk-based approach to the allocation of our resources. When you look from year to year, as the CFO explained, the comparison will depend on issues including, for example, renewal. One of the important renewals in the zoonosis area, for example, is our programming in relation to BSE, which was the sunsetting program that is now renewed.

Agriculture committee  That's a great question, thank you for that. The area of innovation doesn't stop at the production. The control innovation is a critical area for us in CFIA. Indeed we have moved in a number of areas to much more modern DNA-based techniques that require much smaller samples to assess things like pest risk.

Agriculture committee  Exactly.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Again, I think there is tremendous opportunity in the international context. Let me use a specific example. In the context of being able to control listeria, which as we know has been a very significant issue, we've seen some tremendous innovation undertaken by processing plants in Canada.

Agriculture committee  In the context of the discussions that have taken place to date in the federal-provincial-territorial space, as I noted earlier, standards of identity and grades are critical. We are not far apart. There are some differences, but we're not far apart on issues of safety, because you're either safe or you're not.

Agriculture committee  Exactly.

Agriculture committee  Yes, certainly. I think it's a great example of where it then promotes not only greater alignment and opportunity for the industry, but a more effective and aligned system of control for those who have regulatory responsibility. Also, as we discussed earlier, it is shared. I think one very good example is in the province of Quebec, where the provincial agency and the CFIA have a number of areas of very high collaboration.

Agriculture committee  I think the simple answer to your question is, absolutely, traceability is becoming recognized more and more as a fundamental tool in terms of protection. Indeed, for CFIA one of the things we were very pleased to see is that the Safe Food for Canadians Act enshrined that focus on traceability.

Agriculture committee  I think most of the industry sectors have actually put in a lot of effort in this space, not just in terms of traceability but in the entire supply chain risk management as well. We can be very proud of our Canadian agrifood sectors in terms of their commitment to looking both at traceability on farm food safety and at food safety through the chain.