National President Bob Kingston has told a Senate Committee
studying proposed legislation that there can be no assurance of food safety and
security without the human and financial resources needed to protect consumers.
Kingston testified October 2 before the Senate Standing
Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. The Committee is examining Bill S-11, the
so-called Safe Food for Canadians Act.
The proposed legislation was quietly introduced in the Senate by the Harper
government just as Parliament adjourned for the summer break.
Once enacted, Bill S-11 would create a broad-based law
covering all ‘food’, replacing the current Fish
Inspection Act, Meat Inspection Act
and Canada Agricultural Products Act.
The government is touting a provision that would see an assessment of the
resources allocated to food safety once every five years. It also claims imported
food will become safer because importers will be required to obtain a license
from the CFIA.
Unfortunately, Kingston noted, Bill S-11 continues the
wrongheaded reliance on industry self-policing without providing CFIA with the resources
to ensure compliance.
Kingston’s appearance before the Committee coincided with the
rapidly-spreading XL Foods E.coli crisis. He drew parallels to the tragic 2008 Maple
Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak that claimed the lives of 23 Canadians.
“Without a commitment on the part of the
government to ensure adequate resources are available Canadians cannot expect
improvements in food safety outcomes from this Bill alone,” he told the
Senators.
“Too often
budget has been the main determining factor in the design and/or delivery of
CFIA’s inspection and food safety program, exposing Canadians to higher risk
than should be the case.
“If we are
not careful, the successful enactment of Bill S-11, as well as CFIA’s new
Inspection Modernization initiative could fall victim to these pressures as did
the Compliance Verification System, or CVS ,
before them.”
Budgetary restraints
and a lack of inspectors to backfill positions mean few have received CVS training more than four years after its
introduction, Kingston said. He noted that only a small portion of inspectors
at the XL Foods plant were fully trained in CVS .
The government’s point-man on Bill S-11, Senator Don Plett,
is on the record as saying the CFIA now has enough inspectors to meet its
mandate. Yet, as Kingston pointed out, the Conservatives have yet to back up that
assertion with hard facts.
In her report following the Maple Leaf outbreak, Sheila
Weatherill urged an independent audit of inspection resources. However, the
CFIA itself chose to examine only processed meat inspection, ignoring such crucial
areas as fish, produce and beef inspection. Yet even that limited review saw the
Agency move to hire 170 new inspectors.
“I hazard to
guess that if the CFIA did a similar review of its other inspections programs
like fish and meat hygiene slaughter, they would find that a similar upward adjustment
is required to adequately deliver those programs,” Kingston said. “I urge the
committee to amend this bill to make such a review mandatory.
“I also note
that an amendment has been put forward by the government, but it does not
require a resource audit of CFIA until five years after this bill becomes
law. That’s like crossing your fingers
and hoping nothing bad happens for five years.
We already know CFIA has a problem.
Don’t wait for another outbreak before addressing it.”
