When Parliament resumes Jan. 31, the federal government and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are going to be under the political gun over their handling of the BSE crisis, opposition critics said last week.
“I think the minister should have been in Washington the next day after the latest case was announced, impressing on the Americans that this is a top priority for us,” said Conservative agriculture critic Diane Finley.
“And we have some questions about the accountability of the CFIA. Did they mishandle the feed ban? Why wasn’t there a recall?”
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New Democrat Charlie Angus said he will renew calls for a total ban of animal protein in animal feed and insist that the rate of testing be sharply increased.
“Total testing would be a big step and it would be onerous so I don’t know if we need to go that far but we need to have that debate,” he said from his northern Ontario riding.
“I think there is a larger issue beyond the border opening that the government isn’t dealing with and it isn’t going to go away just by wishing and hoping.”
Angus said producers in his area “are just furious” with the CFIA and how the issue has been handled.
“The sense of how serious this is just doesn’t seem to sink in with the bureaucrats,” he said. “And in government, there seems to be no political appetite to rock the boat on BSE so they are putting their faith in getting things back to what used to be normal. I think BSE is going to be a problem for us for a long time and we have to recognize new approaches are needed.”
MPs will have a ready-made forum for scrutinizing the food inspection agency when Parliament resumes sitting because the House of Commons agriculture committee will soon start hearings on new CFIA legislation presented by the government in December. The CFIA Enforcement Act was approved in principle in mid-December and sent to committee for public hearings.
