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Budget cuts increasing risks to food safety in Canada

Agriculture Union president Bob Kingston definitely raised some eyebrows today when he addressed the recent CFIA investigation at a Lilydale Inc. meat processing plant. The CFIA has yet to determine how contaminated products ended up on grocery store shelves.

Kingston said he was worried that reductions in sanitary inspections at the Edmonton plant may have had something to do with the contaminated products sent out to consumers. Saying it may just be a coincidence, Kingston said, ” There’s no denying the agency has been rolling the dice on food safety and hoping the health of Canadians won’t be compromised.”

Kingston blamed the reduction in food safety inspections by the CFIA in northern Alberta starting January, 2015 on pressures to cut budget deficits. Again citing the Lilydale plant, Kingston rolled off a litany of cuts in the sanitation inspection process: “tasks that verify the plant is doing their sanitation work properly have been cut in half, and the tasks that make sure everything’s clean before the plant starts up have been cut in half, and the tasks related to verifying that they even keep proper records around sanitation have been cut in half.”

The Calgary Herald got hold of an internal document released by the CFIA in response to an access to information request. The document revealed a 12 percent budget cut to the agency by the Conservative government was the reason for the reduced sanitation checks.

“In an effort to ensure we live within our resources, we need to be smart about deciding what work we will do now, what we will defer and what we won’t do at all,” chief inspector Craig Price said in the internal document.

The Calgary Herald also spoke with an Alberta Inspector and agreed not to reveal the inspector’s name for fear he could be fired. This inspector said he was troubled that meat destined for Canadian dinner tables received less oversight than the same products destined for south of the border, meaning the United States.

According to this inspector, standards in the U.S. require that the CFIA have inspectors every day at processing plants if the products are to be exported to the U.S. But those plants supplying products for domestic use only have inspectors on site three days a week.

“Meat inspection is kind of like traffic enforcement,” the inspector said. “Just like there’s a natural tendency to speed if you know there’s no police around, plants are more apt to cut corners if they know we’re not going to show up.”

Health Minister Rona Ambrose would not speak to the media, but in a prepared statement, she fired back at meat inspectors: “These union allegations are misleading, and it is unfortunate they would play politics with food safety.”

This statement is actually misleading because while Ambrose’s parliamentary secretary, Cathy Macleod said the 2014 government budget allowed for an additional 200 meat inspectors to be hired, in effect, the CFIA actually cut over 350 food safety inspection positions. Additionally, the CFIA plans to eliminate an additional 192 more food safety inspectors in 2016-2017.

New Democrat critic Malcolm Allen has another viewpoint. He suggests the CFIA has never done an internal audit to determine the number of food safety inspectors they actually need to keep Canadians safe. Right now, Canada has 3,000 inspectors, and the question still comes back to, is this enough? Allen points out: “If you don’t know how many you need, how do you know if you have enough?”

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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