After a six-month, $2.7 million investigation of the fatal 2008 listeria outbreak, investigator Sheila Weatherill is calling for a massive overhaul of Canada’s food safety laws, regulations and practices.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz immediately said the government accepts the recommendations and will act with improved food safety policies and a strengthened Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“This is a turning point,” he told a July 21 news conference. “The reports are in and (we) will continue to deliver resources, regulations and legislation where required to strengthen our food safety system.”
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Opposition MPs insisted that while the Weatherill report makes important recommendations, the mandate did not give her the power get to the bottom of the Conservative government’s role in allowing the food safety crisis to unfold.
They continued to insist the government should call a public inquiry, in part because of inconsistencies in government versions of events. Liberal MP Wayne Easter said a Liberal government would call an inquiry if his party wins an autumn election.
“It has been a year and the system still is not fixed,” he said. “The pressure is on the government to do something. The government should lay out a road map by September and we will be holding them accountable for that.”
In a report presented to Ritz July 21, former Edmonton health executive Weatherill recommended that CFIA rules and practices be strengthened and improved, that Ottawa develop a better disease-outbreak preparedness system led by the Public Health Agency of Canada and that both industry and government develop a “culture of food safety.”
She said the government’s response to last year’s listeria outbreak that killed 22 Canadians was slow, disorganized and confused. Although Ritz led daily public briefings in the beginning, the government message was inconsistent and should have been delivered by a health expert.
The Maple Leaf Foods plant where the contaminated food originated did not react properly to earlier evidence of contaminated product.
And it is not clear the CFIA has enough resources or properly trained inspectors to do a proper job. Weatherill called for an independent audit to determine what resources CFIA has for food inspection and what is needed.
“Until the system is remedied, events like those of the summer of 2008 remain a real risk,” Weatherill warned. “It took the 2008 listeriosis outbreak to raise awareness that food safety cannot be taken for granted. We cannot wait for another food-borne emergency to occur and more lives to be lost before we act.”
She acknowledged that implementing her 57 recommendations will cost money and create more regulations. But inaction would be worse.
She said her investigation showed that months before the listeria outbreak, CFIA implemented a new inspection oversight system that had some key gaps, including little knowledge of how it would work and whether there were enough resources to properly implement it.
There is confusion over the number of inspectors actually involved in front-line inspection, although Bob Kingston, president of the inspectors’ union, said the numbers are known and the agency is understaffed. Weatherill reported that inspectors at the Maple Leaf plant said they were stressed because of too much work.
A key flaw at the time was that food processors were not required to notify CFIA when they discovered contamination in their plants. She recommended that be changed.
Government and industry were slow to recognize the severity of the situation and had no co- ordinated response plan, which led to confusion between departments and levels of government, she reported.
Weatherill said consumers wanted credible information about what foods were suspect and what populations were most vulnerable.
She recommended that operators of institutions where vulnerable populations reside, including seniors’ residents and hospitals, develop food safety rules that make them more cautious about the foods they serve, including heating before serving.
That brought a sharp rebuke from CARP, a national advocacy group for seniors.
Vice-president Susan Eng said the onus is on other system players to make sure food is safe when it is sold. “If our municipal water system provided water only with boil-water advisories, we’d be up in arms so why should anyone, but especially the frail elderly already in nursing homes, be subjected to such risks?”
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