The purpose here today is to give you an update on the Maple Leaf action plans.

I once again wish to express my deepest personal sympathies to those Canadians who have been affected by this tragedy. While this is the most unfortunate of events possible, I absolutely do not believe that this is a failure of the Canadian food safety system or the regulators.

Certainly knowing that there is a desire to assign blame, I want to reiterate that the buck stops right here.

As I've said before, Maple Leaf Foods is 23,000 people who live in a culture of food safety. We have an unwavering commitment to keep our food safe, and we have excellent systems and processes in place. But this week it's our best efforts that failed, not the regulators or the Canadian food safety system.

Here are several facts to illustrate this. First, the standards for food safety inspection in Canada are nearly identical to those in the United States. They are both based on the core principle of environmental management and environmental testing, and the Canadian regulatory structure has had an enviable track record.

Second, the incidents of listeriosis in the United States, sadly, according to the CDC is 0.25 per 100,000 or roughly 900 cases per year, and the Canadian data is in line with the U.S. and lower than what we believe exists in Europe.

Third, from 2003 to midway through 2008, the United States had 74 product recalls.

Finally, a comprehensive study done at the University of Regina gave Canada one of five superior ratings out of 17 top-tier OECD countries in a world review of food safety. This highlights that Listeria is a particularly challenging bacteria for the entire food industry to manage, including the United States and Europe, simply because it is pervasive.

So I emphasize this is our accountability ... and it's ours to fix, which we are taking on fully. We have and will continue to improve on our action plans and I'd like to give you an update on those plans as of this moment.

Number one, we recalled product well beyond the product that was tested positive for Listeria. Overall this recall is going very well. One hundred per cent of our retail and food service direct customers have been contacted. They have very complete recall procedures in their own supply chains and they're implementing those.

For verification only, we have contacted 100 per cent of all our major customers' warehouses and 87 per cent of all warehouses in the Canadian food chain.

We've had telephone contact with 100 per cent of our own retail direct coverage for verification and have a begun a physical visit and certification visit as a follow up for completeness.

Finally, we've had verification contact with over 50 per cent of our food service and user customers, recognizing that there are over 8,000 of them that we are aware of. Number two, we closed the plant, and we commit not to reopen it until we are absolutely confident that we have fully sanitized the facility and looked at every aspect of the physical and operational processes for either root cause or potential to improve.

I cannot at this point say exactly which day the plant will reopen.

Number three, we've engaged a team of third-party experts who are acting as a technical advisory group. They're looking at two things: first, they're examining the Bartor Road facility to critically examine our ability to restart in a food-safe environment.

Here are a number of the areas they are examining closely: They're looking at drains and drainage systems, refrigeration units and overhead systems, flooring elevator protocols, in-plant construction protocols, process flows of equipment and people, potential for temperature variability in the ovens. And they're poring over the data in search of the root cause.

Because Listeria is so widespread in our environment, the actual determination of that root cause for certain is unlikely but we continue to seek it out, at least to narrow it down.

This is a complex microbiological investigation and we have some leading third-party experts working on it.

I reiterate: We will not restart the plant until this investigation is complete and I've signed off on it personally. It is all being done collaboratively and in communication with the CFIA.

Number four, the second objective of this technical review is that we are certain through that process we will find important opportunities to enhance our physical and operational systems and processes that will improve on what we do, and we will implement those.

And number five, we're being as responsive as possible to consumer questions through both our website and the consumer hotline.

And number six, we have many teams of people studying a range of initiatives to enhance our food safety and give Canadian consumers a better understanding of Listeria.

Maple Leaf has 100 years of history. We have outstanding quality products. We understand that we have violated our accountability in this circumstance and we are committed to taking firm action to earn back Canadian confidence in us.