Federal food safety bill reaches final stages

Saturday, November 3, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

The federal government’s proposed bill to give the Canadian Food Inspection Agency more tools to protect food safety has swiftly cleared a number of legislative hurdles and is now being reviewed by a parliamentary committee.

Bill S-11, the proposed Safe Food for Canadians Act, was introduced in the Senate on June 7. By Oct. 17, Senate had adopted the bill with one amendment: tying assessment of its resources for administration and enforcement to a five-year review. The following day the bill was introduced in the House of Commons and by Oct. 23 had received second reading and was on its way to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food for review.

The Canadian Meat Council, a national trade association for federally inspected meat packers and processors, is largely in favour of the legislation but it has a concern.

Executive director Jim Laws says “we support it because it puts together several bills and attempts to unify inspection across many sectors,” which would allow CFIA to be more efficient.

The bill also proposes to license importers, Laws says, noting that currently CFIA doesn’t have enough control over which companies import certain foods. For example, when melamine was found in pet foods imported into Canada in 2007 CFIA “didn’t have a very good handle on who actually imported this stuff,” he says. “Once they get all importers of food licensed they’ll be able to track them down a lot more quickly.”

Another positive aspect of the proposal is it will help to make other sectors be inspected more consistently. He points out that CFIA inspectors may be in fish or dairy facilities once every six weeks while they are in meat plants every day.

The one part of the bill that concerns the council is the section that enables the government to incorporate other documents within related regulations “by reference,” he says. If the reference being added to a regulation is something like an international standard that several other countries are also adopting, Laws says there’s no issue. However, changes have been made to the CFIA’s Meat Hygiene Manual of Procedures, which is referenced in Meat Inspection Act regulations. And the manual changes were made without consulting industry, he notes.
 
If the government is going to introduce a new document and require companies to comply with those rules immediately, the council maintains that’s not in the spirit of the way rules and regulations should be made. “We want to be consulted,” he says.

Laws says the council’s submission to the parliamentary agriculture committee on Oct. 30 requests that when the government develops the regulations to the proposed bill it consults the council on plans regarding how it will incorporate documents. It has also requested to be consulted on future amendments in the regulations.

Dairy Farmers of Canada spoke in favour of the proposed legislation at the parliamentary committee Oct. 30. In speaking notes provided by DFC’s Therese Beaulieu by email, vice president Ron Versteeg, an Ontario dairy farmer from Cumberland, told the committee the organization welcomed the new legislation when it was introduced. At that time, DFC stated that “food safety is a high priority for dairy farmers and we recognize that it is a shared responsibility between public and private parties.”

The federal government says in its press releases on the proposal that when it’s adopted, the Act will provide CFIA with more consistent inspection and enforcement authority, including an enhanced ability for inspectors to compel food processors to provide information in a timely and standardized manner. It will also give the CFIA authority to use regulations requiring traceability systems for food processors.

The proposed legislation targets unsafe practices, implements tougher penalties for activities that put people’s health and safety at risk, and provides better control over imports.

It will consolidate the authorities of the Fish Inspection Act, the Canadian Agricultural Products Act, the Meat Inspection Act and the food provisions of the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act. BF