Agriculture committee  Just to be clear, there has been a regulatory requirement in legislation for mandatory reporting of product positives. That has existed for an extended period of time. Where we did not have that obligation on the part of industry was for the environmental testing, and that speak

Agriculture committee  If it pleases the member, I would ask Paul Mayers to respond to the question, please.

Agriculture committee  Again, I'm not sure I'm in a position to comment as to whether or not more resources will be made available by Parliament.

Agriculture committee  Again, my answer back is simply that we have been asked to contribute to the government response to the staff report and to the report of the independent investigator. At this point in time, we can't speak to whether the government will make recommendations that support resources

Agriculture committee  No, I believe that what I have heard repeatedly from the government, and previous governments as well, is that they view food safety for Canadians as a priority. We do know there are processes that we as a department or agency contribute to, both in cycle for budget and external

Agriculture committee  I will do my best to be brief and to answer directly. We do recognize that the report of the subcommittee, the dissenting report of the government, and the report of the independent investigator all underline the issue of resource capacity to address risks in the appropriate way

Agriculture committee  I simply want to add a quick point. One of the areas around that communication--because, obviously, public health starts provincially; the investigations are done by local public health, and information flows through the provincial system to the federal system for that analysis-

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd certainly benefit from rereading the testimony, but I think the question that was posed, honourable member, if I remember correctly, at the time we appeared was whether there had been a third party formal evaluation of the CVS program. We testified a

Agriculture committee  I certainly thank the honourable member—

Agriculture committee  Sure.

Agriculture committee  No, in actual fact, if I could be very clear on that, while it is true that the sample, the swab you're making reference to, was taken, the reality again is that they did notify us immediately upon return of a positive lab result. Now, again, this touches on the issue that from t

Agriculture committee  Correct. That is the new directive brought in by CFIA last fall. As I say, it was part and parcel of making sure the product was contained early. And in fact, the recall was issued in the absence of any reported illness from our counterparts at Public Health.

Agriculture committee  Again, I think what the investigator has done is bring a focus to a number of critical issues. First and foremost, she did identify issues around coordinated response and relationships, which are absolutely critical, as the investigator herself stated in her report, and as I beli

Agriculture committee  I appreciate the intervention. Again, I'll be very clear with the committee, as I have been on multiple occasions, that in our circumstance, as to the view of Mr. Kingston that inspectors in and of themselves can prevent this from happening, they are a critical component of what

Agriculture committee  Yes. Because of a number of factors, our food safety system is stronger today than it was a year ago. I would also say to this committee that it will be stronger a year from now than it is today. It is imperative, again, as we've talked about in front of this committee and in f