Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has named a high-powered seven-member panel to advise on food safety and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Former CFIA president Ron Doering chairs the Ministerial Advisory Board on CFIA and food safety.
It includes Calgary cattle industry icon David Chalack, Guelph-based consultant and former Ontario Agriculture College dean Rob McLaughlin, legendary Saskatchewan canola breeder Keith Downey, former University of Manitoba agriculture dean Harold Bjarnason, former Conservative Nova Scotia agriculture minister Brooke Taylor and prominent Quebec dairy farmer Marcel Groleau.
Brian Evans, Canada’s chief food safety officer, will be an ex-officio member.
Creation of the advisory panel was one of the recommendations of last year’s report by Linda Weatherill on the 2008 listeria outbreak that killed more than 20 Canadians.
In announcing the advisory council, Ritz said the board would meet regularly and report annually.
“This outstanding group of Canadians will be a vital external source that will advise on how to further strengthen our food safety system,” he told the House of Commons agriculture committee Nov. 18.
Meanwhile, opposition MPs hammered Ritz over what they said is his failure to implement another of Weatherill’s 57 recommendations: an independent audit of CFIA inspection resources to ensure the food system is safe and enough inspectors are available.
Instead, CFIA hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to do a “comprehensive review” of its assumptions about required resources. The review found the CFIA’s assumptions to be credible.
Critics insisted the recommendation is being ignored.
Ritz and CFIA officials said they have never called the PricewaterhouseCoopers study an official audit.
So does that mean the government has not yet acted on the recommendation despite its claim that all 57 recommendations are being addressed?
“It’s underway,” Ritz told reporters.
“PricewaterhouseCoopers was an external party. You can call it anything you want. You can split hairs. They did the job. They didn’t find the smoking gun you are looking for. We’ve put more inspectors on the front lines. We’ve put more inspection staff to back them up. We’re rebuilding laboratories. We’ve done a number of things that all build on what would be required under any kind of audit or oversight or whatever you want to call it.”
