Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much. The issue of natural health products and the shared responsibilities that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada have in terms of food safety relate to the point the honourable member raised. In the case of natural health products, with new regulatory requirements introduced by Health Canada several years ago, which created the new category of natural health products, these products fall within the definition of drugs and as a result fall outside of the jurisdiction of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you very much. Our controls would be characterized as being consistent with or exceeding the controls in any of the developed countries that have similar food safety systems. The combination of environmental testing and end product testing conducted by the industry, complemented and overseen by the verification testing that the Government of Canada does through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, provides a set of controls that now in some cases exceed the requirements elsewhere.

Subcommittee on Food Safety committee  Thank you very much. Let me start with the issue of a minimum standard to trigger concern, because it is an extremely important consideration. My colleague earlier noted that what we seek to do is to be in a position to provide information to Canadians that allows them to take action in their own interest.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. In terms of the guidelines themselves, as I mentioned, they're currently with the industry. We anticipate receiving the comments from the industry on both sides of the border in the next several days, frankly. That's our expectation. Once we have those comments and assuming that they continue to be supportive of the proposal, we will work to conclude that with our U.S. counterparts.

Agriculture committee  That is the entire aim of the removal of controls. It is to be in a position, to be clear, and to state to whoever is interested in the information that these fields—and it's even not just farms, it's right down to fields—are no longer subject to any regulatory controls as it relates to PCN.

Agriculture committee  We absolutely agree that there has to be clarity going forward. In fact, that's exactly why, in the negotiations with the U.S, the issue of clarity on how you remove controls was a particular focus. And we have that now.

Agriculture committee  The answer is, with two negative test results from two separate intensive surveys. We have that clarity. We are already gearing up to hit the ground in terms of doing that survey work so we can get these farms out of regulatory control as soon as we possibly can, because we fully agree with you.

Agriculture committee  Yes. We have had potato cyst nematode in Canada for many decades, albeit in specific parts of the country and clearly at a very low level of prevalence.

Agriculture committee  That's correct. The guidelines have not been concluded. Both the CFIA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's animal and plant health inspection service have agreed. The protocol is now in the hands of the industry on both sides of the border for their input, and it is our hope that we can conclude this protocol quickly so that we can move to implement it.

Agriculture committee  While I'm talking about it, probability is very important. There is, of course, the potential for high levels of infestation or very low-level prevalence. What we seek to do is, of course, detect. However, it is important to understand that detecting a low-probability event will be difficult to replicate.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. There is a protocol, and as a result of that protocol, the actions you heard described were implemented by our trading partner, in this case the United States. Prior to the work we have recently done with the United States to develop new guidelines, the automatic response was province-wide closure of the market.

Agriculture committee  This was one of the very serious limitations of the previous protocols: that there was not a clear basis on which to return lands that had been identified as positive to production. In the new guidelines, this has been addressed. Now regulatory action with regard to a field will cease after two negative test results from separate intensive surveys.