Agriculture committee  We have a major role to play in the fight against the bird flu. We are the main stakeholder in this issue. For example, in 2004, when there were outbreaks in British Columbia, it was the agency that took steps to ensure the outbreak was contained and ultimately suppressed. In s

Agriculture committee  In that case, the measurable target would be no cases of bird flu in Canada. For example, with respect to food processors, our target would be a compliance rate of 90% or higher. Those are the types of targets I'm referring to.

Agriculture committee  Madam Mountjoy will merrily answer that question.

Agriculture committee  The relative percentage of imports?

Agriculture committee  Generally speaking, most of our food products are imported from the United States. Specific products such as fresh fruit and vegetables are imported from Chile and certain Latin American countries.

Agriculture committee  I did not bring them with me, but we can tell you exactly which country exports what product to Canada.

Agriculture committee  We have a list of certain types of products considered high risk, products that come from certain countries where plant pests, residue or animal diseases may be present. We do not have a black list of countries from which we refuse all imports. We act according to the type of pro

Agriculture committee  That's correct. It extends to those products, from the standpoint of product safety and labelling as well.

Agriculture committee  In the case of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States, the overriding objective is to foster the free flow of goods between the two countries. The fact remains that standards are different in some cases. We then must ensure that animal diseases present in t

Agriculture committee  It may be, but if we find out, we'll remove it.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, the honourable member is way ahead of the agency in terms of his thinking. The agency is at the stage of looking at some options in terms of looking at how we could be potentially controlling pet food. Some of these options involve the agency delivering pet food re

Agriculture committee  The feed is regulated by the agency in the same way as other commodities, on the basis of establishing whether a country is meeting our regulatory requirements or not. We look at the country itself and determine whether on the basis of its animal disease status what type of produ

Agriculture committee  Dr. Evans, please.

Agriculture committee  Well, in some cases it's 100%. In the case of meat products, as an example, every animal that is slaughtered in Canada is seen by one of our inspectors or one of our veterinarians. In the case of canned tuna, it's about 5%. It varies depending on the commodity we're talking abo

Agriculture committee  I think it's pretty well parallel in terms of what we do for the majority of commodities. Our approach is based on international standards and so is the States. If you have a very specific question about a given commodity, we can look at it, but generally speaking we're about th