On July 1, without fanfare, agriculture and health departments engaged in some personnel shuffling.
Close to 200 Health Canada food inspection branch employees officially became Agriculture Canada employees.
Sixty Agriculture Canada food inspection policy people trekked the other way to a new bureaucratic home.
These were the first unheralded steps on the path to a new federal food inspection agency.
Other milestones in the process:
- February, 1995: The budget directed departments involved in food inspection (agriculture, fisheries and health) to better co-ordinate their efforts.
- March, 1996: Plans were announced to create a new federal inspection agency, independent of all three departments.
- August/September, 1996: Justice department lawyers write the enabling legislation.
- September/October: Legislation is introduced, debated and approved in Parliament.
- In early 1997, the new agency will be created with close to 5,000 government employees, making it one of Ottawa’s largest bureaucratic entities.
