Independent panel releases results | Report cites ‘weak food safety culture’ for E. coli scare
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz faced intense and sometimes sarcastic opposition questions last week after a report on last year’s E. coli incident at XL Foods pointed to system failures.
Why had he not fixed them as promised more than three years ago, they asked.
The independent panel report on XL said Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff at the meat processing plant in Brooks, Alta., were part of a “weak food safety culture” that allowed contaminated meat to slip under the regulatory radar, sickening 18 consumers and leading to the largest meat recall in Canadian history.
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The panel report released June 5 called for more emphasis on CFIA inspector training on food safety issues, much as Sheila Weatherill recommended in 2009 after the deadly listeria contamination episode at a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.
Ritz has repeatedly said all Weatherill recommendations have been implemented.
During a House of Commons agriculture committee meeting June 6, NDP agriculture critic Malcolm Allen said the new report puts a lie to government arguments that the Maple Leaf gaps have been filled.
“Do you not find that (a renewed call for training) a scathing indictment of not only your leadership but of the CFIA?” he asked Ritz.
The XL report “says you didn’t get the job done,” he added.
Liberal agriculture critic Frank Valeriote carried on the attack.
The new report “says there must be greater emphasis on training and continuing education of CFIA inspection staff,” he told Ritz.
“This just came out yesterday and you’re trying to tell us we’ve already addressed that problem. With respect sir, I don’t believe you have.”
Ritz gave no ground in the face of the barrage of criticism.
He said the government has invested in improved inspector training, but it is a moving target that needs constant upgrading.
In response to the report’s criticism of CFIA inspectors who allowed lax control at XL, Ritz last week an-nounced a three-year $16 million investment in 30 new positions that will form inspection verification teams. The teams will do random investigations to make sure food plants and their CFIA inspectors are doing their food safety jobs properly.
