Federal government officials are insisting that food safety resources are adequate and that the system is being strengthened.
The argument comes in the face of sharp Liberal criticism about Conservative government investment in food inspection.
The government’s Safe Food for Canadians Act received second reading approval-in-principle recently before being sent to the agriculture committee, which will resume hearings when Parliament resumes in September.
Saskatchewan Liberal senator Bob Peterson argued that while the bill’s proposals to strengthen food inspection sound good, the intent will be undermined because the number of frontline inspectors is being cut and the federal government is concealing a lack of funding for food inspection.
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“While I agree with many of the amendments in this bill, I am concerned that a lack of funding will cause this bill to be a bone with no meat,” he said in a Senate speech.
“I am concerned that Canada’s food safety watchdog, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, will be even weaker than it was just prior to Canada’s worst outbreak of food borne illness in our country’s history (the 2008 Maple Leaf Foods listeria outbreak that killed at least 22 people.)”
During a Senate agriculture committee hearing on the bill June 21, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz refuted Peterson’s argument, insisting that when the 2012 federal budget outlines $56 million in cuts to the CFIA, it is efficiency savings and not inspection cuts.
Meanwhile, the government has committed more than $151 million of new money to food safety, much of it to hire new inspectors, he said.
As well, the law will require industry to be more responsible for the products it puts on the market, facing hefty fines if it fails to meet the standard.
Peterson pursued his allegation of underfunding with Brian Evans, Canada’s chief food safety officer.
“Are you satisfied that you have the necessary resources and money to effectively administer this bill,” he asked at committee.
Evans said yes.
“Certainly, it is our belief that the government has made consistent investment in the agency over the past several years to enhance our inspection capacity,” he said.
