Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation. It's definitely a very new experience for me, so I hope this all works out for everyone. My name is Jane Pritchard. I am a veterinarian who has lived and worked in Ontario, Saskatchewan, A

Agriculture committee  Certainly, I am not an expert in saying what resources the CFIA have or don't have available to them. In my personal interpretation, reading the bill through, as a person who has supported the development of regulation and continues in a career that regulates, I guess there are a

Agriculture committee  I have two things, really. One, having the additional federal legislation always helps, because federal trumps provincial. Showing that there is clear support at the federal level always helps as a provincial enforcer. It's always helped to have that backup. The other part of it

Agriculture committee  The very short answer is that influenza is a disease in which the strains mix and can change and potentially become zoonotic and affect people. Certainly, when you start mixing a pig strain, which is one that crosses into people, with a turkey strain, which is one that crosses in

Agriculture committee  I might have to pick her up. I don't know why she's whining. She's usually good.

Agriculture committee  The most common transmission is when animals, or humans directly in charge of the animals, move between premises. That's the number one thing that you're shutting down with biosecurity. In 2014, certainly one of the possible introductions—and it was pretty high on the list as a

Agriculture committee  Most of the industries are addressing that. Doing that is in one's own interest in order to remain viable as an industry. My personal experience is mainly with swine and poultry in the Fraser Valley. For anyone going onto a poultry farm in the Fraser Valley, there's an anteroom.

Agriculture committee  My experience is very local on this. After the swine farm occupation in British Columbia, I organized a meeting dealing with One Welfare, which is dealing with both human and animal welfare. At that meeting were the RCMP officers who had responded to the family farm the animal ac

Agriculture committee  Farmers are farmers. Certainly I wouldn't say this about ranchers in some provinces, because when animal identification came in I felt a little threatened going on to some ranches, but farmers aren't going to take this into their own hands. I have never heard a farmer say that th

Agriculture committee  I spend all day reading regulation and trying to figure out how to enforce it. Being reckless as to whether entering such a place could result in the exposure of animals to a disease or toxic substance means.... To me, if you're not following the protocols, it could. I feel tha

Agriculture committee  Very quickly, when I have spoken to the RCMP, certainly in the Fraser Valley, the officers wish to have that kind of a relationship, but there are not a lot of resources for them to develop that expertise and support. Definitely we all work together when we have disease outbreak

Agriculture committee  That was one of three hats that I wore in the duties. You get a little grey in between, so I was replaced by three people when I retired. As the chief veterinary officer, the primary duty is basically to advise the minister of agriculture and the government, and to enforce what

Agriculture committee  I did not specifically, but the current Health of Animals Act…. In British Columbia, the chief veterinary officer is all-powerful once an emergency is declared. There is a tremendous amount of power that falls on the shoulders of the chief veterinary officer to be able to do thi

Agriculture committee  I personally feel that if the trespass regulations were enough of a deterrent, that would be enough, because you would be able to prevent the act, and if it occurred, you would be able to react quickly and contain it. The issue is that if you cannot react quickly and contain it o

Agriculture committee  I have only one recommendation with the National Farm Animal Care Council, and that's permanent funding, because it relies on grants to survive. It is the cornerstone of how I can stand up and defend any of our industries, because we have these very strong, science-based protocol