The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is fighting accusations that it is throwing unreasonable barriers in front of proposals to expand independent beef packing capacity.
Politicians on Parliament Hill who had identified the agency as a major problem have for the moment lowered the temperature of their complaints.
At news briefings and during an appearance before the House of Commons agriculture committee in November, senior CFIA officials insisted they impose standards on proposed new packing plants for the public good.
The agency had been accused by Conservative MPs of being obstructionist, bureaucratic and undermining the government goal of increasing packing capacity so the Canadian beef industry can lessen dependence on American plants.
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CFIA president Richard Fadden told MPs on the agriculture committee that everything the agency insists new packing plants do is aimed at maintaining public health standards and international requirements.
“I believe and hope that the industry understands and appreciates our position on this matter,” he said. “After all, we have a major responsibility to uphold the integrity of the Canadian food health and animal safety system.”
He said efforts are being made to speed up approval of proposals. However, standards will not be ignored or diminished to satisfy a political goal of increasing domestic packing capacity quickly.
“We owe it to Canadians and we owe it to the industry to set and maintain very high standards,” said Fadden. “The industry appreciates that a CFIA signature on a regulatory approval means that a plant has met these very high standards. As well, it is very important that the agency applies regulatory standards consistently across the country. Failure to do so is inherently unfair to the industry.”
Conservative MPs who had threatened earlier to cut CFIA spending over the issue were almost quiet and compliant. They did not aggressively challenge the CFIA argument.
Fadden directly challenged the main point regularly raised by CFIA critics – the demand that parking lots at packing plants be paved. He said it is a requirement in some international markets.
“It is not for Canada a core health and safety issue, yet it is related to health and safety,” he said. “Some of our trading partners will not take beef from Canadian establishments without paved parking lots. The European Union is one. There are several in Latin America and there are several in Asia.”
Fadden was cut off in the midst of his opening statement by several Liberal and Conservative MPs demanding the names of markets requiring paved parking lots. But later during questions, the issue was not raised.
Fadden said foreign buyers audit Canadian plants regularly and a challenge to one plant could jeopardize trade from the entire industry. Still, Fadden said that when dealing with new plant proposals, the agency should not be an impediment nor part of the business plan.
“We work closely with industry throughout the entire slaughter plant approval process and this will continue,” he said. “We’re happy to guide the industry in their efforts to be approved but we must be careful as we are a regulatory agency protecting the public interest and not business consultants.”
