The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it must do a better job of keeping potentially damaging and invasive plant pests out of the country.
“The CFIA’s plant import program needs to be modernized to reflect increased volume, speed of trade and changing trade patterns,” agency president Carole Swan told MPs earlier this month during an appearance before the House of Commons public accounts committee studying a critical report from auditor general Sheila Fraser.
Swan said the agency has already started improvements, including developing a more risk-based system for assessing potential import of plant pests. It is developing a better working relationship with the Canadian Border Services Agency, she added, and is trying to bring communications between CFIA offices into the modern era, replacing faxes and paper communication with electronic messages when possible.
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She said CFIA executive vice-president Brian Evans has been put in charge of overseeing the agency reforms.
Swan’s appearance before the committee followed a damning auditor general report last year that concluded the CFIA does not have “an effective integrated risk management approach to plant and plant product imports.”
Fraser said an audit found that not all imports that should be inspected for potentially deadly pests were being inspected. Communication with the border inspection service was often inadequate.
As well, because communication between CFIA offices was often done by fax, some documents were lost or critical information about the status of shipments to be inspected were slow in being communicated.
Fraser said these deficiencies put Canada’s $100 billion forest and agricultural sectors at risk.
Swan faced sometimes hostile questions from MPs.
“It was a very disappointing audit, to be frank,” said Ontario Liberal Bonnie Crumbier.
“Frankly, it was quite a serious indictment of the management performance over at CFIA.”
Crombie noted that earlier audits in 1996 and 2003 had shown some of the same problems.
“Why haven’t those issues been dealt with until now and how can we have the confidence that they will be addressed and the action plan will be fulfilled and implemented?”
Swan said the agency has taken the critical reports seriously and has been trying to improve.
That answer was not good enough for Ontario NDP MP David Christopherson, the most critical of the questioners.
“My questions are based on shock when we read the report at some of the findings and the fact that they could go on so long and not be addressed,” he told Swan.
He accused agency management of minimizing the criticism, referring to a positive self-assessment the CFIA gave itself in a performance report for 2007-08 tabled in Parliament.
Under the heading “effective risk management,” the agency reported: “Recognizing the CFIA’s vast and diverse mandate, the agency uses prudent risk management to optimally allocate resources and make decisions related to long-standing and emerging issues.”
Christopherson said that glowing report ignored the auditor general’s criticism.
“This is where you’d think that you’d be pushing the hot button, letting the public and the rest of the government know that you’re on the case.”
He wondered if CFIA would have continued to ignore the problem if the auditor general had not reported again.
“I still haven’t heard an adequate answer as to why the agency ignored an ’03 review and the ’96 audit,” he said.
“What assurance should we have that you’re really going to do it this time when you promised in the past you were going to do it and didn’t?”
Swan noted that in the performance report presented to Parliament, the agency said it met its targets during the year only 50 percent of the time.
“When I challenge my folks as to what this means, I think in part it’s reflective of the increased challenges we have,” she said.
“I think in part it’s reflective of very high targets that this agency has set for plant health.”
Swan and Fraser corrected Christopherson when he said the poor CFIA performance was a threat to the health of Canadians.
“This is not an audit of food safety,” Fraser said. “This is an audit of plant health.”
