Food safety | CFIA receives boost in funding to add inspectors
Farm organizations welcomed additional spending on food safety announced in the Feb. 11 federal budget, in the absence of major new agricultural initiatives.
With Growing Forward 2 already in place as the industry’s main agricultural policy framework, leaders weren’t expecting significant announcements.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president Humphrey Banack noted that considering where the government is at in the election cycle, the budget was as expected.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz described the budget as austere and said Canadians want balanced books. At the same time there is required spending, and extra funding to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is an example of that in the 2014 budget, he said.
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An extra $390 million to the CFIA will be used to hire more inspectors and strengthen food safety programs.
“Consumers across Canada and around the world look to Canada to have a highly safe and nutritious food system and we have to ensure that,” said Banack.
He said food recalls often aren’t based on what farmers are doing on the farm, yet the costs trickle down.
“We have to catch (problems) faster and make sure protocols are being followed,” he said.
Ritz said more than 200 inspectors will be hired in areas such as varietal registration and fruits and vegetables.
The spending included $153.6 million over five years for food safety programs targeted at high-risk foods to ensure trade continues and $30.7 million to establish a national Food Safety Information Network to link laboratories and food safety authorities.
Spending of $205.5 million on continued routine BSE surveillance testing was also announced.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said it was pleased with that.
“The CCA appreciates the commitment and funding that is needed to reach negligible risk status as early as next year and to maintain effective surveillance and prevention measures,” it said.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Lyle Stewart said he had expected that funding would continue.
“That is worthy of note,” he said, after criticizing the budget as “a bit Central Canada centric.”
Liberal agriculture critic Mark Eyking said he was outraged there was no mention in the budget of grain transportation woes on the Prairies.
“The way I see it is, grain is not a priority anymore,” he said.
The government shouldn’t be “thumping their chests” over more inspectors, he added, when CFIA is dysfunctional because the government made a mess of it.
Other measures in the 2014 budget included $305 million over five years for improved rural and northern broadband access.
The tax deferral available when producers must sell livestock due to drought or flood will be expanded to include bees and breeding horses older than 12 months.
Banack added the development of a made-in-Canada branding campaign to raise consumer awareness is also a positive step.
CFA was hoping that tax issues regarding restricted farm loss rules, intergenerational transfer and dividing farm corporations would be addressed, but they were not.
