Agriculture committee  Yes, I submitted it yesterday.

Agriculture committee  On the issue of the processing plant environment, the challenges of operating and the impacts to production, as Joël said, have been very challenging. For us, we have had some particular plant issues. In the case of our poultry business, we had challenges, particularly at our poultry plant in Brampton, Ontario, that resulted in the closure of the plant for a few days.

Agriculture committee  It's a good point. We're not strangers to crisis. Many of you will know our company had a terrible crisis with listeriosis in 2008. We have a very well-developed emergency management process, but in this case I don't think we could have anticipated such a debilitating impact across the business.

Agriculture committee  It's a great question. We have put a whole new effort into that. We had already planned that as part of one of our initiatives. I'm talking about the mental health issue before COVID-19 hit. We've upped it in the past several weeks with weekly sessions with experts and online tools and support, because both the front-line workers and the office workers are facing a lot of stress in their work.

Agriculture committee  It is a big question, and agriculture is a big space. I'm not saying we need a new organization or a new approach singularly for the whole sector. What I wanted to focus on was particularly around emergency management and crisis response. In this case, with many jurisdictions and many players who have to make real-time decisions with uncertain information and deal with an economic and health crisis at the same time, there are some critical trade-offs and decisions, and we struggle to do that.

Agriculture committee  —or where the rules were bent with no ill effect, there should be a strong appetite for reform and culture change. Thank you.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee members. It is a great pleasure to represent Maple Leaf Foods and to provide our point of view on the impact of COVID-19 and on the future. You've heard from many witnesses, and I could of course give you a great deal of information about how the crisis has impacted our business and the sector broadly, and about our direct experience in the crisis management response of our industry and government partners collectively.

Agriculture committee  It certainly is problematic, not least in terms of timing. Bear in mind what this is. It's very much a technical trade issue, a barrier that actually will disproportionately affect packaged U.S. consumer goods sold in Canada. That's many billions of dollars. At a time when we're of course trying to salvage NAFTA and are on the verge of a trade war, we should not, in my view, be doing things—at least at this point in 2018—that could create further friction in the trade relationship.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I think so. Also, I think it's important to look at the solutions. For example, one—just one—is the SmartLabel digital platform. The world is going digital. As for this idea that you inform consumers based on a narrow bit of space on a label in terms of what they need to understand, with the digital environment, of course, people are getting far more information from other sources.

Agriculture committee  This is where obviously I believe Canada does follow the right path of science-based regulation, although in this case where you have regulation in, say, approving poppy seed, it would seem like there is something awry in the way the regulation sets it out. But obviously, I would entirely support the premise that Canada leads in science and finds allies globally through international standard-setting bodies, and is prepared to litigate or go to the WTO when countries impose technical trade barriers that are not grounded in science.

Agriculture committee  Actually, I'll take it up a level beyond regulations: what about legislation? The point we discussed earlier about the conundrum within Health Canada to try to deal with a regulator who's looking at it from the perspective of drug safety and protecting Canadians in that context, to me this all starts from the fact that we're trying to regulate the food industry, fundamentally, on the basis of the Food and Drugs Act.

Agriculture committee  My argument is that the best thing we could do first and foremost would be to create a Canada food act. So separate all the critical issues that are associated with the regulation and the safety of drugs and medical devices, and that kind of zero-risk tolerance, if you will, that of course is so critical to health and safety in the context of pharmaceuticals and so on; but recognize, perhaps not in criminal law but in a new enabling statute that the food industry is fundamentally different, that it has a different set of risks and opportunities.

Agriculture committee  That's right.

Agriculture committee  Yes, that is a good question. Cooperation between industry and academia, among others, is absolutely essential. I can tell you my opinion on cooperation within the industry itself. Competition is fierce in the food processing sector. The potential profit is minimal in this sector, so the trend is to compete fiercely with other companies.

Agriculture committee  That's right.