Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau, P.C., M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food: You’re right. There is no easy answer to this one. It’s not the government who will conduct this business, of course. It comes back to the industry.

When I travel across the country, what I hear in many regions is the need for regional slaughterhouses, and it comes down to the question about federal and the provincial jurisdiction regarding inspection. At my last meeting with my provincial and territorial colleagues in Guelph, we identified this as a priority. We have asked the CFIA to work on facilitating interprovincial trade and access to this certification.

It’s a challenge because at the federal level we have to remain at the international level. What goes through a federally inspected slaughterhouse can be exported, and the challenge is that we cannot go lower for interprovincial trade because we have to comply with our international trade commitment. There is a challenge there, but it has been identified as a priority.

Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau, P.C., M.P., Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food: Thank you. Sometimes it is when we face adversity that we become more innovative. I am so proud that the industry has risen to the challenge and invested in important processing facilities. I would say at the end of the day, it is the industry and the business people who will make the decision. I am quite confident that they see their interest in value-added.

Actually, last week, once again in Saskatchewan, I was visiting oil seed processing facilities, let’s say, and it gives a lot of hope in the development of this sector — one senator was talking about the vegetable proteins. I think there is a lot of potential out of this, investing through the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. This initiative is allowing innovation to take place, and we are at a stage of commercializing some of these innovations.

It is a sector in which we see a lot of potential. I would say that Canada is a leader in the protein industry right now.