The Conservatives say the Canadia n Food Inspection Agency has increased its food inspection staff significantly since they came to power in 2006.
“At the end of fiscal year 2010-11, CFIA inspection staff had increased by a net total of 733 members since this government was formed in 2006,” agriculture minister Gerry Ritz told the House of Commons.
“That is an 18 percent increase, something to celebrate.”
The union representing inspectors quickly disputed the numbers.
“I can tell you those numbers are simply not credible,” said Bob Kingston, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s agriculture union.
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“When people hear about inspectors, they imagine people actually inspecting food, but most of these numbers are about people sitting in offices.”
He said many of the personnel increases are managers and their associates.
The biggest increase in inspectors has come in the ranks of processed meat inspectors in the wake of the fatal 2008 listeria outbreak.
“Meanwhile, they are largely ignoring additional hires in fish inspection and imports,” said Kingston. “These areas are ticking time bombs, but they are not investing there.”
Ritz’s announcement in the House was based on a June 2 memo to him from CFIA president Carole Swan, indicating that inspection staff increased 17.6 percent to 4,898 between March 2006, the first full month of the Conservative government, and March 2011.
The CFIA also received funding in the past two years to fill vacancies and add 170 new positions, she wrote.
However, the memo added the caveat that the “inspection staff ” includes more than front-line inspectors. It also includes supervisors, chemists, risk assessors and science researchers.
“These positions are crucial to the CFIA’s inspection and enforcement responsibilities as they conduct tasks such as laboratory testing, food safety investigations and veterinary evaluation.”
Swan said the funding allowed the addition of 355 inspection staff during the past year.
She promised to “continue monitoring inspector staffing levels and recruitment needs across the agency.”
In the Commons, new NDP agriculture critic Malcolm Allen said the Conservatives’ 2011 budget promised $100 million in new food safety funding over four years, “yet the budget delivers $9 million in the first year, $8 million in the second, nothing after that.… In 2009, the government promised to fix food inspection in this country yet here we are again with the same old promises.… Why should Canadians trust the Conservatives now?”
Pierre Lemieux, parliamentary secretary to Ritz, said if the NDP is concerned about food safety, it should support the 2011 budget with its $100 million promise.
The NDP has vowed to oppose the budget.
