Government rejects amendments S-11 promises the biggest changes seen to food regulations in decades
The House of Commons agriculture committee has quickly approved new food safety legislation thanks to its Conservative majority, which defeated all opposition proposals for amendments suggested by witnesses.
In just two hours, the committee approved the 48 page S-11 bill and rejected dozens of amendments proposed by opposition MPs.
The bill now goes back to the House of Commons for final debate and passage, likely next week.
It is the most significant upgrade in food safety legislation in decades but it slipped through the Commons agriculture committee clause-by-clause study Nov. 6 in less than two hours.
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A key opposition proposal was that an audit of Canadian Food Inspection Agency resources be carried out now so that when audits required by the legislation every five years are conducted, there will be a baseline against which future results can be judged.
Conservative MPs voted against the proposal, arguing that an audit now would be irrelevant five years down the road because technologies change and the needs of the industry change.
“I just think a benchmark now will not be relevant because of the way the industry changes,” Ontario Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux, parliamentary secretary to agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, said in an interview. “What is important in five years is what is needed then and not what was available five years before.”
New Democrat agriculture critic Malcolm Allen and Liberal Frank Valeriote both argued that conducting an audit of CFIA resources now will be critical to understanding later how the agency is doing.
“If you don’t know where you came from, how can you possibly know where you are going?” Allen said in an interview.
Despite that all opposition MPs said they supported the legislation and voted for it, they were proposing amendments in part based on proposals from witnesses, who also supported the thrust of the bill but wanted its powers made more explicit for the industry.
The Conservative majority on the committee rejected all of them.
It led normally mild-mannered NDP MP Alex Atamanenko to denounce Conservative tactics.
“We came here to support government legislation and to make the bill stronger,” he said in a Nov. 6 interview. “In return, they would not accept a single proposal for change, no matter how constructive. They are abusing their majority status. This is not the way Parliament is supposed to work.”
