WINNIPEG (Reuters) — The federal government has reduced the frequency of inspections at certain Alberta meat packing plants and plans to cut spending on food safety, the food inspectors’ union said today.
The cutbacks follow two major meat recalls over food-borne illness in recent years.
Ottawa had made some improvements to meat inspections after those outbreaks but the Conservative government now risks reversing that progress, said Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union.
An outbreak of listeriosis from Maple Leaf Foods deli meat killed 22 people in 2008 and led to an independent report that flagged a shortage of food-safety workers and insufficient training of inspectors.
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In 2012, Canada recalled millions of pounds of beef tainted with E. coli produced at a former XL Foods plant at Brooks, Alta.
“I don’t think the lessons learned from either Maple Leaf or (Brooks) were in fact learned,” Kingston said.
The union, citing internal sources, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency instructed northern Alberta staff as of Jan. 5 to cut by 50 percent general sanitation inspection activities, which include reviews of record-keeping and inspection results, and inspections of plants before operations.
The CFIA has also reduced the number of days inspectors work in northern Alberta plants, including Capital Packers and Lilydale Inc., to three from five days a week, the union said. These plants process meat for domestic consumption.
However, the CFIA has maintained its daily presence of inspectors at plants that export to the United States, such as Cargill’s beef plant in Spruce Grove, Alta., to meet American standards, it added.
The NDP said the cuts would endanger Canadian families and asked why beef headed for the U.S. was inspected better than meat for the domestic market.
Cathy McLeod, parliamentary secretary to federal health minister Rona Ambrose, did not respond directly to the question, telling legislators that Canada had a safe system. She also said the 2014 budget had contained money for 200 extra inspectors.
An excerpt of a 2014-15 CFIA report approved by Ambrose and obtained by the union estimated that the government would cut spending on food safety by $35 million to $286 million in 2016-17 and eliminate 192 full-time equivalent jobs. The union said the CFIA is also leaving some inspector positions vacant and has deferred training.
