Agriculture committee  I would say that the Public Health Agency of Canada, seeing as this is a relatively new process, is working more closely than it has in the past. There has been a clear history of having human health and then having all animal health, but I think we're getting closer together. There is a need to work more closely together and a need to recognize funding for projects, funding for laboratories, those types of things.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Thompson. This really brings up the point we were trying to make, that there is a need for a strategy for wildlife health in Canada. We have a partially developed strategy for aquatic animal health. We need a strategy for farmed animal health, and then we need an overarching strategy to see how they integrate.

Agriculture committee  That's a very difficult problem. I think part of it is the issue we talked about, a transparency of leadership. With a lot of the programs and a lot of the policies, we don't know who's on first. We don't know who's in charge. We have very clear mandates for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency when it comes to foreign animal disease incursions; that's their role.

Agriculture committee  It's very difficult to comment on whether or not the government should support the small farm, because I guess it would be a very social kind of question. But there's no doubt in my mind that a lot of the animal health industry or animal industry agriculture is public good related.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, could I just comment on that last question?

Agriculture committee  I'd like to answer that question partially in relationship to the previous question. There are obviously many different problems, and there is not just one solution to every problem. But in terms of animal health, which is our focus today, we really believe that one of the solutions is to have a clearly defined national animal health and national farmed animal health strategy that would give us a way forward so that we are all working on the same page.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and committee members, for the opportunity to be here this morning. I'm representing the Canadian Animal Health Coalition today. I'm a veterinarian and I represent the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association on that board. I'm here with our executive director, Matt Taylor.