Agriculture committee  No, there is science, and we're looking at it. We have some current science that would argue there is a benefit. In other cases, in other studies, it has been somewhat unclear. Again, there are multiple systems, and we are working with the University of Manitoba to make sure that

Agriculture committee  The move that Maple Leaf Foods made in announcing this in 2007, our commitment over 10 years to get to that position, was very much driven by all our U.S. competitors. Smithfield Foods came out of the gate first, but this is all driven by what's happening at the consumer and the

Agriculture committee  There are two things. The first point to note on the issue of science...I don't want to say there is not every good reason to be moving in this direction from a scientific animal welfare point of view. The other key issue is that the current code of practice for care of pigs in C

Agriculture committee  That's right. I wouldn't say that we necessarily have any food safety concerns, but the meat inspection regulations and the consumer packaging and labelling regulations lay out certain mandatory elements that have to be on foods sold at retail in Canada. In the case of meat, ther

Agriculture committee  There are no national regulations in the United States, but several states, under pressure from activists, have adopted bans on the use of sow crates in hog production. These typically have been smaller states that have pretty small populations of hogs, but the Humane Society of

Agriculture committee  Yes. There's no way any inspection agency can inspect the thousands and thousands of retail stores in Canada. But we would argue there does need to be better enforcement, nonetheless, with more random checking, and ultimately it's also an obligation of the retailers. They don't w

Agriculture committee  I appreciate that. If you've followed the media in recent months, there has been a wave of announcements from retailers and food service operators in Canada and the United States stating their commitment to stop sourcing pork from any operator that does not adopt open housing sys

Agriculture committee  Well, certainly, Canada imports a large volume of pork, an increasing volume of pork, from the United States. At the same time, we have traditionally exported a large volume of feeder pigs and weanlings for feeding that in turn could be processed and become pork that then is ship

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to contribute to your study of the food supply chain in Canada. I'm pleased to offer a perspective from Maple Leaf Foods, particularly as it relates to the pork sector. In November 2006 I appeared before your committee to talk about

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, quickly. First, absolutely, the need to rationalize and sort out the mandates of multiples agencies is critical to the whole process. But for us, if there were a single thing.... Our submission lists several things we would recommend on program design and administration, b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think you know our answer would be yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly I think the issue I mentioned about poaching is a concern when we have incurred expenses. The suggestion you're making is something that perhaps would alleviate that. I think, though, it's important to say that the rights of the foreign worker are in all fundamental res

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. That's our argument. If there's a proposal here that there be some mechanism where the costs--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, some compensation, well.... I don't know if my colleagues can mention any particular examples or issues here.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm finished. Thank you.