A Conservative government decision to quit sending federal inspectors into provincially regulated meat plants in three western provinces within 30 months is drawing accusations that food safety standards will suffer.
The government and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, supported by some food safety experts, dismiss the concerns.
Conservatives say it is opposition and union fear mongering.
No later than early 2014, Ottawa will end contracts with Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia governments that see scores of CFIA inspectors visit more than 100 provincially regulated meat plants that are authorized to produce product for consumption only in their own province.
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As the fee-for-service arrangement is phased out, provincial governments will have to create their own meat inspection system, as all other provinces with provincial plants have done.
“We’re concerned about the possibility that when CFIA inspectors walk away, the provinces won’t have the capacity to carry on delivering the system,” Public Service Alliance of Canada’s agriculture union president Bob Kingston said.
In a letter to federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, Kingston predicted food safety in the three provinces will suffer.
“As a result of this decision, inspection of meat from provincially registered facilities in these provinces will fall below acceptable standards and will certainly be beneath the standards and meat inspection practices enjoyed by Canadians living elsewhere.”
New Democratic Party agriculture critic Malcolm Allen and Liberal critic Frank Valeriote both condemned the government decision, arguing it will put Canadian consumers at risk of illness from contaminated meat. Allen said it was because “minister Ritz wants to save a few dollars.”
On Aug. 11, CFIA associate vice-president for operations, Catherine Airth, disputed Kingston’s prediction. She noted that other provinces have had their own inspection system for years.
“Ultimately, food safety outcomes from the food inspection system won’t change because all meat produced in Canada, whether it’s a federal facility or provincially licensed and inspected, must meet the standard of the federal Food and Drugs Act,” she said.
“My view is that food safety is not going to change and we will work closely with our provincial partners through the transition to make sure there aren’t any gaps in the system.”
University of Guelph food safety specialist Sylvain Charlebois, associate dean of research and graduate studies, said Aug. 12 this decision does not have to mean lower inspection outcomes than now exist since federal inspectors working at provincial plants inspect according to the provincial rules and not to federal rules.
“I think these three provinces have had a very good deal for a while, getting a service and paying just a portion of the cost,” he said. “This is making these provinces accountable for their own systems and I really believe it is a situation of those provinces being told they have to invest more in food inspection. People expect it.”
Airth said CFIA provincial inspections cost the agency $6 million annually and provincial fees covered $2 million.
But she said the decision was not primarily about the money, although in 2008, CFIA cited savings of almost $3 million annually when it first made the proposal to the Treasury Board.
She said it is an effort to have the agency concentrate on its core mandate of federally regulated establishments.
While PSAC officials said their objections were food safety concerns because the switch would not affect the number of federal inspectors employed, the CFIA senior official said that may not be so.
In the end, some federal inspectors may decide to move to the provincial level and federal staffing levels may change, she said.
“We go through a lot of attrition at the agency,” she said. “We will be working with each province in a bilateral way to see how they want to build their system. They may be interested in taking some of our staff so at the end of the day, we have to say we could have some workforce adjustment.”
