A DILIGENT opposition and the political dynamics available in a minority government have shown their strengths in relation to Bill C-27, the proposed Canadian Food Inspection Agency Enforcement Act.
The draft of this bill, essentially written by the CFIA itself, proposed sweeping agency powers and included some ill-defined language regarding licensing, regulation and inspection. The specifics of the dense and complicated bill rang immediate alarm bells among Canadian farmers and ranchers, agricultural lobby groups and the political opposition.
Besides various aspects in the chapter and verse of C-27, lack of public consultation was a key concern, as was a lack of checks and balances, appeal mechanisms and reporting requirements that would apply to the CFIA under the legislation.
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Cost recovery was and is another troubling aspect. The proposal raised the spectre of producers being forced to cover even more costs associated with inspection and national food safety.
Only two weeks ago, parliamentary secretary Wayne Easter spoke of avoiding “unlimited taxpayer liability,” as an explanation for cost recovery measures in the bill. He apparently has no misgivings about the unlimited farmer liability that appeared possible in the Liberal draft.
Opposition members saw the flaws in C-27 at the committee level, and the result was an extensive list of amendments that were included in a new draft.
These amendments would see, among other things, protection of producers against additional costs for CFIA services rendered. They include the creation of a new advisory committee that can receive feedback on CFIA activities from industry and users of agency services. They include provision for an ombudsman who can hear appeals and mediate disputes relating to CFIA actions and regulatory enforcement. And they include a mechanism for annual reporting on CFIA activities.
The bill has been vastly improved through opposition intervention and has evolved beyond the CFIA wish list embodied in its original form.
Now that its progress is on hiatus because of parliamentary emphasis on the same-sex marriage bill, all interested parties, agricultural groups in particular, have time to re-examine the amended C-27 and make their views known.
Although further progress will depend on timing of a federal election, the amended bill is likely to be revisited this fall and sent to the Senate.
At that stage, the public, industry groups and producers will have an opportunity for input that they didn’t have this spring when the bill was drafted.
If further amendments are strongly indicated, the Senate has shown itself unafraid to amend legislation, despite its Liberal dominance.
The initially flawed Bill C-27 is giving the parliamentary system, the minority government and the powerful opposition a chance to show how they can work.
