For two days last week, MPs on the House of Commons agriculture committee argued, name-called, raised the spectre of a food inspection system crisis and accused each other of fear mongering.
At the heart of the unusual and raucous summer hearing was a report of government plans to cut the budget of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and turn more responsibility for inspection over to industry, which critics say weakens the agency’s ability to ensure safe food.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz in public comments and CFIA executive vice-president Dr. Brian Evans in testimony at the committee denied the charges and noted that the agency budget has been increased and 200 inspectors have been added the past two years.
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“There have been recent reports that the CFIA plans to cut back on food inspections,” Evans told MPs. “I can well understand why these rumours would concern members of the committee. There is, however, no basis in fact to these reports.”
The proposed cuts were discussed in an autumn 2007 letter to the CFIA from Treasury Board about a government order that five percent be cut from the budgets of many agencies and departments by ending low-priority or unnecessary programs.
The letter, discovered by a CFIA scientist on an unsecure website despite its confidential designation and forwarded to his union, has never been made public. However, the employee was fired and is now grieving his dismissal and the letter has been leaked to several media outlets.
Last week, the opposition majority on the committee voted to demand that the government make the document public. The government did not immediately comply.
But Evans said it was part of a regular governmental effort to make sure its programs are still relevant. At CFIA, any savings were retained by the agency to be invested in other more effective programs.
But despite much MP praise for Evans and the agency, his assurances did not mollify opposition MPs or the union that represents the fired scientist.
Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter jumped on the proposal to “shift from full-time CFIA meat inspection presence to an oversight role allowing industry to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks.”
He said at committee that it was a dangerous proposal.
“By transferring it to industry, it possibly puts greater costs on producers, takes control out of the public sector and gives it to companies and the bottom line, it could put the health of the food supply for Canadians at risk,” he told the committee Aug. 18.
The next day, Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada president Michele Demers told MPs she had read the secret document and it “leads towards deregulation, privatization and delegation to industry of the responsibility for food inspection.”
Conservative MPs on the committee accused opposition Liberals of fear mongering and of trying to deflect public debate attention from a Liberal-proposed carbon tax that would hit agriculture hard.
Evans argued that industry has always had the front-line responsibility for ensuring food safety, with CFIA inspectors conducting random inspections and overseeing the safety system. It is the principle at the heart of the widely used Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points system.
“The industry plans must always meet CFIA specifications and CFIA will always inspect, monitor and verify compliance so that food safety standards are met,” he said. “Strong inspection presence is key to our success. Over the past two years, the number of CFIA inspectors has increased from 2,820 to 3,020.”
But after the hearings, Easter noted that the planning document remains secret.
Liberal public health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett raised the fear of a public food safety disaster in a week when Canadians were hearing about deaths and a massive meat recall from a Maple Leaf plant in Ontario.
“This government has been caught cutting programs at the expense of food safety and it hasn’t got the courage to admit what it’s doing,” she said in a statement.
