OTTAWA – The federal auditor general says there are serious management and organization problems in Canada’s food inspection system.
In his annual report to Parliament, auditor general Denis Desautels last week said the system suffers from inter-departmental and federal-provincial overlap, a lack of proper evaluation and delays in making changes.
He also concluded it costs taxpayers too much. The auditor general recommends that the federal government collect tens of millions more dollars from the food system in user fees for inspection and grading services.
None of this, however, means the safety of Canadian food was questioned.
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“If the improvements we proposed were made, I think it would be fair to say you would have a better functioning system,” an official from the auditor-general’s office said in a background briefing after the report was tabled in the House of Commons Nov. 22.
“But we didn’t really find major indications of unsafe food in the country.”
It is a point reinforced by Agriculture Canada and the meat industry.
Changes to the food inspection system are being made, including creation of a national system that will end federal and provincial duplication, the department told the auditor general.
“With these actions (the government) is confident that Canadians can continue to be assured that the food supply is safe and nutritious and that the federal food safety system is functioning in an efficient and effective manner.”
Criticisms of the food inspection system took the form of complaints that inspections at some high-risk plants were not done frequently enough, that rules for frequency-of-inspection were not always followed and that different departments and commodities follow different rules when dealing with imported food.
But recommendations on more vigilant cost recovery could have the greatest impact on the meat industry if followed.
A week after representatives of the meat packing industry were on Parliament Hill pleading with MPs to stop Agriculture Canada from imposing more than $12 million a year in new user-pay charges, the auditor general was proposing much more.
“Of the $226 million annual cost of federal food inspection activities, only $11 million – related mainly to product grading and export certification services – was recovered in 1993-94,” said the report.
“If the treasury board’s cost-recovery policy were applied fully, it would allow for the recovery of up to $200 million annually.”
The auditor-general’s office official said most of that would be increased revenue for Agriculture Canada.
A recent departmental estimate that $60 million is potentially recoverable “is too conservative,” he said. “We think there is much more.”
He said Agriculture Canada has been one of the slowest departments to implement what are supposed to be government-wide cost-recovery rules.
The industry has argued that while it is willing to take on more of the costs of trade-related grading and inspection, health-related inspections benefit consumers and should be paid for by the public.
In addition, if more costs are to fall on the industry, it would rather pick up some of the grading and inspection work itself than pay the government for possibly over-priced services.
