The union representing Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors issued a report last week that damned the agency as too biased in favor of the food industry at the expense of consumers and food safety.
To federal protests, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada called CFIA a two-year-old “failed experiment.”
It noted the agency, created from inspection bureaucracies in agriculture, fisheries and health departments, has a three-pronged mandate for food safety, consumer protection and market access.
“Food safety is usually mentioned first in the CFIA business plan, indicating that perhaps it is the highest priority,” said the PIPSC report, issued May 27.
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“Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent to employees and onlookers that market access is definitely the only important one of the three.”
The union cited reduced staffing, increased co-operation with packing plants and reduced reliance on hands-on inspection in favor of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points inspection as signs that safety standards are not a priority.
The union sprinkled its report with provocative lines like: “HACCP – Have a Cup of Coffee and Pray.”
Agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief quickly came to the defence of his agency.
“I’m very pleased with the actions of the food inspection agency,” Vanclief told reporters May 27, after the report was released. “The track record of the safety of food in Canada since the formation of the food inspection agency quite frankly has been very, very good.”
He said Canadian food “is the safest today it’s ever been and we have a regulatory system in place that ensures that.”
If there are problems, the inspectors and their unions should take their concerns to their managers, he said.
Earlier that day, before the union issued its report, CFIA officials were on Parliament Hill testifying before the House of Commons agriculture committee.
Vice-president AndrŽ Gravel insisted there is no contradiction between the goals of food safety and market access.
He described it as making sure food coming into Canada meets Canadian standards and ensuring that food exports are safe so foreign buyers can be sure of Canadian product.
“The recent agreement that allows pork from any federally registered plant in Canada to be exported to Chile is a prime example of CFIA’s work in this area,” he told MPs. “The agreement means improved market opportunities for Canadian pork with no compromise in Canadian standards.”
Conservative MP Rick Borotsik said he still wondered if there is not a conflict between the agency’s mandate to guard food safety standards and to promote exports. It is “a conundrum,” he said.
Gravel denied it.
“Market access is not trade promotion,” he said. It is to protect the health of Canadians and if those standards also give sellers a market advantage, so much the better.
PIPSC saw it in a more sinister light, arguing that food inspection has become a tool to help industry sell.
With more industry control over the inspection system and the CFIA more reduced to the role of monitor and auditor of company inspection efforts, the advantage has swung to industry.
The union raised again the issue that rather than putting food safety in the jurisdiction of Health Canada, CFIA reports to the agriculture minister whose constituency is the food industry.
