Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  And I can go for a while, so I'll stop.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Yes. There are many things that we have improved on dramatically. One of the best areas has actually been young children under the age of six; that's the category I would put them in. I'll refer specifically to Ontario data because I'm more familiar with it. In the early seventies, we were at around 20 fatals a year of children on family farms.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I spoke on pandemic preparation about two weeks ago at a convention in London and I said there are two things you can do wrong in a situation like that. The first one is to over-react, and the second one is to under-react. I think the reaction from government officials in Canada, in the U.S., and a lot of other places was probably appropriate.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  The Occupational Health and Safety Act would probably say that it is regulated now. To what extent depends on the province and the jurisdiction.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I think I'd like to start by saying that voluntary is the way we would recommend. Regulation, I don't think, is necessarily going to answer the problem any faster than voluntary action would. As the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, which is now about 15 years old, we've been attempting to raise awareness as our primary method of operation.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thanks, Marcel. I'm going to take over the rest of the role. The point we want to make today is that safe farms produce safe food. We want to raise the awareness of the committee that it's not only the general public that's impacted by food safety, but we also must not forget that it's the safety of the farmers, their families, and the workers who produce the food.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Mr. Allen's own motion says May 27. If you wait until May 27, I'm sure you'll have the information by then. There has been no information, and no witnesses have been denied to the opposition at any time during these hearings. He'll get his information, I'm sure, by the time his motion is in its completed stage or dates.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  If it's May 28 and it hasn't been delivered yet, he can bring that up with me. If he wants to come and talk to me about this, it's probably more effective to do that than to bring it up here at 8:30 at night, because we can try to get this information for him.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  No, what I said was that if he wants the information and he has some concerns about it, why doesn't he come to talk to me about it and we'll try to get it for him. I don't have any of this stuff with me. In terms of his motion, until the date on the motion comes up, there's no complaint.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  On a point of order, that needs 48 hours' notice, and we'd certainly be glad to consider it after that. So I'd like you to rule that out of order.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Why don't we just go and check it later and get back.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Are we finished on Mr. Allen's motion?

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  No, we're done on or before June 11.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  I have just one other thing. I'd like some explanation as to what kind of weight we're going to give all the potential witnesses on the committee list, because clearly, if people can submit their positions without any questioning or any explanation of what they're doing, that puts them in an advantageous position compared to the people who have had to come here and justify their positions in their testimony.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  We don't oppose this in principle, I don't think. The way it's written here sounds as if everything that comes in, in terms of written testimony and recommendations, is going to be for inclusion--that is, it needs to be included in the final report. I think Mr. Allen probably means “for consideration” rather than “inclusion”, unless he's saying that we're going to take whatever we get here and it's going to be in the final report.