If federal health minister Rona Ambrose had one message she wanted to make clear in her recent testimony at the House of Commons’ health committee, it was this: there have been no cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
None. Nada. Zip.
“There are absolutely no cuts. I understand the president of the union says there are cuts, but the president of the CFIA has said there are no cuts,” Ambrose said, referring to CFIA president Dr. Bruce Archibald, who was seated two seats over on her left.
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Funding levels for the agency are at record levels, Ambrose said, and Canada’s food safety system is the best in the world.
“We have enough inspectors,” she told the committee, adding that Agriculture Union president Bob Kingston “is wrong” and that “actual experts” have backed her statements about there being no cuts.
Ambrose’s repeated insistence comes as CFIA staffing levels continue to snag headlines across the country, bolstered by union findings and department leaks that say there are not enough inspectors to do the agency’s required work.
The latest complaints of inspector shortages emerged in March, when the Agriculture Union held a news conference in Edmonton. There, reporters were given copies of heavily redacted documents obtained by the union under access to information that showed the agency’s labour crisis had led to reductions, effective Jan. 5, in meat inspections of ready-made processing plants in northern Alberta.
While inspection levels for meat destined for the United States have been maintained, the agency has reduced its daily presence in registered domestic processing establishments, which affects 66 percent of the region’s processing plants.
Ambrose denied those reports in the House, where she accused the union of making “inaccurate and irresponsible” claims. She continued to stand behind those comments, even after iPolitics obtained complete, unredacted documents that backed the union’s claims.
The internal documents show the CFIA has conceded it “is not able to complete work as per program design” when it comes to meat hygiene inspections in northern Alberta because of tight finances and a shortage of six inspectors. According to the documents, daily inspections and tasks such as sanitation inspections have been cut.
In an email, CFIA told iPolitics those documents were simply “a contingency plan” and that no cuts had been made.
More staff shortages were later reported in Quebec, where Kingston said every federal meat inspection team in the province is understaffed, leading to fewer inspections at meat plants.
Again, Ambrose insisted that the reports of CFIA cuts were nothing more than union “grandstanding,” repeatedly making reference to a Conference Board of Canada report that ranks Canada’s food safety system as number one out of 17 Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development countries, a point she raised repeatedly while testifying at the health committee May 7.
That talking point failed to impress opposition MPs, who peppered Ambrose with questions about Canada’s food safety system, demanding to know why it was not a federal priority.
The fact that Canada’s food safety system is the safest in the world “doesn’t wash,” given the current reports of cuts, said Liberal health critic Hedy Fry.
She also questioned “the level and quality of training” that food inspectors receive in Canada, while NDP MP Isabelle Morin demanded answers on the shortage of CFIA staff in Quebec, which Ambrose denied.
Ambrose accused Morin of doing “the bidding of the union leader” in a heated exchange between the two women, in which Ambrose remained steadfast in her insistence no cuts had been made.
Archibald, meanwhile, insisted morale within his department was at an all-time high, telling the committee a recent employee survey found 90 percent of the department’s staff were “proud” of their work and 95 percent were “prepared to go the extra mile.”
The survey’s response rate was 82 percent, he said.
This, despite an anonymous Alberta inspector who recently told iPolitics that morale within the agency “is in the toilet,” and there simply weren’t enough inspectors to do the work.
As for the number of inspectors, Archibald stressed that the agency “always has enough inspectors to cover needs.”
