When Canadian Food Inspection Agency president Carole Swan retired in late June, industry was almost unanimous in calling for an experienced replacement who would not spend months learning agency complexities.
They got their wish when prime minister Stephen Harper announced that Saskatchewan native George Da Pont, formerly CFIA executive vice-president, would take over the president’s position.
Da Pont has been at the agency for a year after leaving his position as head of the Canadian Coast Guard. He had taken an increasingly important role in managing the CFIA’s operations.
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The appointment was part of a shuffle of senior public servants that changes some of the guard at Agriculture Canada.
Andrea Lyon, associate deputy agriculture minister, takes the same position at Environment Canada.
Claude Carriere, former foreign and defence policy adviser to Harper and deputy secretary to the cabinet in the Privy Council Office, becomes associate deputy agriculture minister.
And Mary Komarynsky, once assistant deputy minister for farm financial programs at Agriculture Canada, becomes the CFIA’s new executive vice-president.
The Canadian Meat Council, which represents federally regulated meat packing plants, applauded Da Pont’s appointment.
“We believe this will work out very well,” said executive director Jim Laws.
“We’re very pleased they didn’t parachute someone in from another department, someone who would have to learn from scratch. George had a year inside shadowing Swan and I’m sure he has a feel for the basics of the organization.”
Laws said Da Pont has impressed meat council executives.
“He quickly grasped issues we were raising and understood the implications. And he has worked in other departments in challenging positions, so he has a track record.”
He said moving Agriculture Canada veteran Komarynsky into the executive vice-president’s job also is a good move since she brings an understanding of the industry and the culture of the department. She has been a senior executive at Transport Canada for the past four years.
Now that the new CFIA team is in place for at least a few years, the meat packer lobby has a shopping list of issues it would like to see addressed.
“We’re hoping to see some agency fees lowered,” Laws said.
As well, the council is suggesting changes in regulation to allow pre-market label approval on meat products and to see changes in rules that will allow more effective traceability in the inspection system.
Laws also said Cameron Prince’s remainder as vice-president of operations is good for the industry because he has been working to revise rules to modernize the inspection system.
“That is an important project and we look forward to it continuing,” he said.
