On Friday, May 16, 2003, Philip Amundson was given a preliminary indication that the unthinkable was about to happen in Canada’s cattle industry.
Then he went to a baseball tournament.
Preliminary tests suggested a downer cow on an Alberta farm had BSE, the Calgary-based director of western operations for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was told in a secret heads-up.
More tests in Winnipeg and British labs would be necessary on the weekend but it wasn’t looking good.
“We of course were very familiar with BSE and the devastation it was causing in Britain but we thought, ‘this isn’t a Canadian issue. This is European,’ ” Amundson recalled in a recent interview.
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“Of course, we were wrong and we were into it. We were familiar with it but I don’t think there is anything you can do to prepare yourself for the kind of shock that comes with it.”
Four days later the worst fears had been confirmed, and Amundson was in Edmonton for the news conference that informed the world and the Canadian beef industry that it was entering its biggest crisis in history.
He would be plunged into weeks of 16-hour days and seven-day weeks as he led the CFIA effort to locate the source and to assure the world that the disease was isolated and under control.
It was the start of a work journey that led in March 2008 to his selection as a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada, one of only 74 senior civil servants to be so honoured in the 42-year history of the award.
But awards were far from his mind that Friday afternoon five years ago when the telephone call came.
There was nothing to do but wait so Amundson did what he had planned to do all along.
He drove to Moose Jaw, Sask., to help coach a Calgary girls’ baseball team in a tournament.
As it turned out, he was summoned back to Calgary early when the preliminary results were confirmed but at least for that Saturday, life maintained a semblance of normalcy.
The 53-year-old recalls it as a good diversion. Back in Alberta, many of his family were in the cattle business and he was carrying around an awful secret that could devastate them and that he could not share.
“It was probably good that I was tied up.”
CFIA and the cattle industry weathered the subsequent storm.
Several years later, Amundson was again at the centre of a storm as avian influenza broke out in British Columbia. For five weeks he directed containment and eradication efforts while living in an Abbotsford, B.C., hotel.
“They were very stressful times but I look back and in both cases, I can say I’m proud that we were successful in dealing with the problems,” he said. “I have had a wonderful career and at the end of the day, I can go home thinking that I have done some good. That was certainly the case at the end of the AI and BSE episodes.”
In early March, Canada’s highest political levels concurred.
At a ceremony in Government House, prime minister Stephen Harper and governor general Michaëlle Jean presented Amundson and four others with a certificate signed by the prime minister, a gold pin and a Canadian work of art.
“This year’s recipients of the outstanding achievement awards are being recognized for their extraordinary talent, effort and leadership,” said Harper.
Amundson’s citation said his leadership abilities shone during the “high-exposure crisis. Led by Mr. Amundson, the agency responded rapidly and thoroughly to each incident, steadfastly refusing to cut corners while providing the information that Canadians and international regulatory bodies needed to maintain confidence in the Canadian food supply.”
And like the outbreak of BSE, the award ceremony came as a complete shock to the CFIA manager and 32-year veteran of Agriculture Canada and the CFIA.
Six CFIA regional directors got together to nominate their boss, acquired the necessary supporting letters and managed to do all this while keeping it secret.
In late February, Amundson received a letter from Harper inviting him to Ottawa to be honoured.
“It knocked me for a loop,” he said.
“I had no idea. It was a wonderful honour to be recognized for doing a good job, but especially to be recognized by my peers and co-workers.”
