Finance committee  Absolutely. That was fantastic.

Finance committee  Sure. I'll repeat that Canada's meat industry has many, many temporary foreign workers working in meat processing facilities across the country, especially in some more remote facilities, and, very important for us, we don't pay workers less than what Canadians make. They all p

Finance committee  That's a good question. I don't have that answer. But certainly, the accelerated capital cost allowance really does help our members to purchase new capital equipment.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. The reason, as I think another witness prior to me said, is that it takes about five years to fully commission the project. So if these particular items were even allowed to be reclassified, or whatever way in which it would be done, that would be very helpful fo

Finance committee  For the sake of our economic growth— Thank you. I'd be pleased to answer any questions afterwards.

Finance committee  Thank you. Good morning. My name is Jim Laws, and I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council here in Ottawa. The meat processing industry is the largest component of Canada's food processing sector, with annual revenues valued at over $24 billion and total employme

Agriculture committee  All plants are slightly different. The line speeds are approved, and the lines are staffed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency according to the line speed, the throughput at that particular establishment. The establishment has to present a plan that is acceptable to the govern

Agriculture committee  That's a good question for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They have the criteria for the particular plants that operate at those speeds.

Agriculture committee  Are you talking specifically about which processing facility it came from?

Agriculture committee  Okay. If the meat is in a package that was prepared at a federally registered establishment, there is a crown on it, and there is an establishment number. You could go to the Internet and determine where it came from, but if it's a branded product, then you'll know. For instance,

Agriculture committee  Absolutely, and I did bring a few samples that I bought at the store yesterday. From the Canadian Meat Council's standpoint, about 10 years ago we called for mandatory labelling, particularly of ground beef, with proper food handling instructions, such as cooking temperature, how

Agriculture committee  We certainly support Health Canada in currently undertaking to review the science surrounding meat tenderizing, absolutely.

Agriculture committee  I think what some of our members would say is that, especially in a federally registered establishment where inspectors are around all the time, nothing would stop an employee from having a sidebar discussion with an inspector at any time. They would be able to do that. They cert

Agriculture committee  In terms of our general impression, we noted in one press release we put out that Canada is very successful. We currently export meat to more than 125 countries. Those countries come to Canada. They audit our system. There was a review done by, I think, one of the universities in

Agriculture committee  One important thing that Bill S-11 puts in place is that it requires all the importers of food to be registered, which is not currently the situation. It's my understanding that a few years ago, when there was a scare involving imported melamine, they had trouble tracking it as q