Agriculture committee  It's a long-standing concern of ours about the duality of the CFIA, that they are both guardians and promoters. At one time we had a department of consumer affairs that consolidated all the legislation of the consumer protection type and oversaw it.

Agriculture committee  Do you mean in its current form?

Agriculture committee  Our impression is that it's not being well done in its current form because of this duality. It sets up a culture in which it's difficult for employees to determine how to balance the duality: do they lean this way, or do they lean that way? Quite often there are trade-offs that

Agriculture committee  I see where you're coming from, but I think you have to take a step back and look at the way the agency operates, and look at the higher levels of the agency as well, and indeed at the way the various directors of the agency have responded to the XL Foods mess. It is our feeling

Agriculture committee  Definitely. There's a big if in there though. It has to be done properly.

Agriculture committee  Again, I'm not aware of any recent cases. Bill might be. I don't know where food tampering has actually taken place. However, if that does occur, the fines are heavy enough and could presumably be implemented, and jail sentences could be implemented much more quickly than through

Agriculture committee  If they follow the procedures, and that's a big if, unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned. By having the capability of knowing the auditing procedures of what went on in the plant, and knowing what went where, where it came from, where it went in the plant, and where it's gone s

Agriculture committee  It's not a bad idea. I'm not too sure about the baseline. As I suggested, we think there are problems with the way the CFIA is operating against its methodology. Perhaps an audit would help show that and show where it needs to make improvements, the type of audit the Auditor Gene

Agriculture committee  At one time, there existed a federal consumer affairs department. We recommend that such a department be re-established and that the CFIA , with a clear “guardian” mandate, be brought into that department. Thank you. I'll be pleased to answer any questions.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Consumers' Association of Canada, CAC, is pleased to appear before you today. For 65 years, the CAC has represented the interests of ordinary Canadians in their role as consumers of goods and services as provided by both the public and private sector

Transport committee  I think there are very few flaws in it. I think it's a very well-crafted bill. I think there are a couple of minor changes that could be made. If anybody has any suggestion of introducing a bill that they think would be preferable to this one, then I'd like to see that done pos

Transport committee  I would think, if I understand you, that unless it was shown that pulling that work order...airline was as a result of negligence on behalf of the airline--in other words, this is something that was discovered on the line--it would fall under the extraordinary measures category.

Transport committee  Again, I think these are all specific examples--hypothetical ones, or perhaps real ones--that could be covered off under the legislation and I think there is sufficient wiggle room in there, if you like, to allow for those kinds of decisions to take place--

Transport committee  Again, I'm going to come back to the point that you are citing specific examples of things that might go wrong and the penalties associated with them. That, in my opinion, is not the thrust of this legislation. The thrust of the legislation is, indeed, to change behaviour, and gi

Transport committee  Well, the way you've phrased the question, it would sound like it's, but again, I don't think that is necessarily the outcome of that. There are exclusions in there. I think that “extraordinary circumstances” phrase allows for a lot of leeway, a lot of—