The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is fending off charges from its unionized veterinarians that export certificates for meat destined for Russia and China are being inappropriately signed by managers because qualified vets are refusing to do it.
The veterinarians, represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, say the certificates “may contain false and misleading statements” because they claim the pork and poultry comes from farms free of certain diseases.
“Without knowledge of the farm of origin, how can they truthfully certify disease-free status?” said Maria Koller, chair of the union’s 500-member veterinary medicine group.
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Since early July, vets have been refusing to sign certificates guaranteeing that pork sent to Russia does not come from a farm where swine erysipelas is present. There also have been problems with certificates for poultry products headed to China.
Koller said human health is not an issue.
At the CFIA, Jean-Pierre Robert dismissed it as a technical issue and accused the union of using the export certificate controversy as a contract negotiating pressure tactic.
“Vets have been signing these certificates for years and suddenly they discover they can’t, just as their contract dispute is going to arbitration,” he said.
“We feel they are doing this to put on pressure.”
He said CFIA plans to negotiate a new agreement with Russia to remove the requirement that the on-farm disease status be certified. Instead, the meat will be certified as disease free.
“They already have made such an agreement with the Americans and we do not expect there to be a problem extending that to us,” Robert said.
But Koller said it is an issue of CFIA forcing veterinarians to guarantee something they cannot guarantee.
Without a trace-back system to the farm, a vet cannot know about the overall health of a swine herd or poultry flock, she said.
She did not deny that bad union-management relations colour the veterinarians’ mood this summer, but she said it is not a union pressure tactic.
“You can’t take people’s heads and hearts and divorce them, but even if we got a contract tomorrow, this would still be an issue,” she said. “I can say that given people’s frustration levels, they are not willing to compromise on an issue that they see as one of integrity.”
Union president Steve Hindle said in a statement that the integrity of CFIA also is at stake, since managers are signing a legal document that they cannot verify as accurate.
“If veterinarians feel they cannot sign a document certifying that the meat comes from farms free of disease, how can a manager in a downtown Montreal office tower who has not even been in contact with the animals and carcasses know with certainty that the meat is safe?”
Koller said the union has made several suggestions to CFIA on how an on-farm verification system could be created.
It could require farmers to keep a detailed flock or herd sheet outlining health information.
