Agriculture committee  I will refer that to Dr. Rosengren.

Agriculture committee  First of all, there was the feed ban. When the outbreak occurred, we were no longer allowed to feed animal by-products back to ruminants. That was the first stage. Since then, there were different regulations in the slaughtering facilities that changed the amount of material that

Agriculture committee  Part of the verified beef program is a producer training program. There are modules in there that deal specifically with biosecurity. They develop and teach best practices for biosecurity. At this point, the majority of producers in Canada have been trained on these practices. If

Agriculture committee  We'll never get back to where we were, but we are in a better place than we were as far as controlling the disease if there were another outbreak. I think that moving toward harmonized regulations with our trading partners is where we'll end up. The point right now is that we w

Agriculture committee  Back at our annual meeting, we had a representative from CFIA present to us. They said that dealing with avian influenza had been all they wanted to handle at that point in time. If there were another outbreak that was to happen, they would be under duress trying to cover all the

Agriculture committee  My suggestion would be zero tolerance, which they're at now, but the fines need to be more forceful. I look to Australia, where it's nothing to have a $100,000 fine for having some sausage in your suitcase. You get a few of those fines out there and that certainly deters people f

Agriculture committee  I will refer that question to Dr. Rosengren to clarify.

Agriculture committee  They are our major competitor. We export a lot of livestock to the United States, so to align our transport regulations with theirs would go a long way to help where we are. Leigh, do you want to add anything to that?

Agriculture committee  I will answer the last part first. Yes, the minister is well aware, as is the Minister of Transport. They're aware of our concerns on how we've been dealing with this. I talked about the unintended consequences of the ELDs. Basically, the cattle's time in transport does not line

Agriculture committee  I would say that. Part of it comes from the idea of.... We were looking to Europe's model for some of the basis of the regulations to begin with. You can cover a lot of Europe by the time you get from here to Thunder Bay.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members. It's great to be here tonight. My name is Matt Bowman, and I appreciate the opportunity to come today to represent the Canadian Cattle Association and our 60,000 beef producers across the country. I am the co-chair of the animal healt