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Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters
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Goodale blames Feds for CFIA failures January 9, 2014 Regina Leader Post REGINA — A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) audit report critical of Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) meat inspection practices and procedures is the third major “screw-up” to occur on Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s “watch’’ and may explain why Ritz is no longer minister responsible for the agency, Deputy Liberal Leader Ralph Goodale said Wednesday. The 50-page report, which was posted on the USDA’s website in December, said the CFIA is performing “adequately’’ in the six components of food safety inspection, but cited numerous examples of “non-compliance’’ in the agency’s oversight of “hazard analysis and critical control point” (HACCP) systems, sanitation standards and humane handling of livestock. The USDA audit was conducted from October to November 2012 at two red meat slaughter plants, four meat processing facilities and one egg processing facility, as well as government offices, including CFIA headquarters, and two private laboratories in Canada. USDA inspectors found sanitation issues at a swine slaughter facility at Langley, B.C., and the former XL Foods cattle-slaughter plant at Brooks, Alta., which had E. coli contamination in 2012, leading to the largest meat recall in Canadian history. The audit report noted that CFIA took “immediate corrective actions and instituted long-term preventive measures’’ to fix the identified non-compliances. “If these actions continue to be effectively implemented, the system weaknesses should be remedied and equivalence (with U.S. food safety standards) maintained,’’ the report said. But Goodale, a former agriculture minister in the Chretien Liberal government, said the USDA audit suggests that budget cuts by the Harper government have weakened the CFIA’s ability to perform its inspection duties beyond the bare minimum. “The Americans are saying (CFIA’s performance) is just adequate. It’s below average,’’ Goodale said, noting that CFIA had the lowest of three ratings required of countries exporting food into the U.S. and will mean more inspections of Canadian food products at the border. “Since the U.S. is our biggest export market, it raises the obvious likelihood that ... (USDA) will be doing more rigorous inspections on the American side of product coming from Canada and that will mean time delays and added cost from the point of view of food exporters from Canada to the U.S.” Moreover, CFIA has allowed Canadian food products not meeting food safety standards in Canada to be sold to Canadian consumers. For that, Goodale blames Ritz and the Harper government, noting that the listeriosis outbreak at the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto that killed 23 Canadians in 2008 and the E. coli contamination at XL Foods both happened on “Ritz’s watch.’’ “He’s had two important and difficult issues to deal with. One was the listeriosis a few years ago and then XL (in 2012). Both of them have been screwed up pretty badly.’’ Goodale observed that responsibility for CFIA was transferred to Health Canada from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in October, although it was announced in November. “This should be treated as a serious wake-up call,” Goodale said. “Being mediocre is not good enough.’’ In response to Goodale’s attack, an official in Ritz’s office said “unfortunately Minister Ritz is in transit and not available for a comment ... I would note that multiple attempts by the government to increase resources and inspectors to the CFIA have been met with consistent opposition in the House of Commons from Mr. Goodale and the Liberal Party.” However, Goodale countered that “Liberals — and all decent Canadians — have opposed massive undemocratic omnibus bills as illegitimate Parliamentary abuses, but we have always argued for more resources for food safety. It’s Mr. Ritz and (Finance Minister Jim) Flaherty who have imposed cutbacks.” |