New report tallies cost of CFIA red tape

Friday, January 31, 2014

by MATT MCINTOSH

It costs an agri-business on average more than $20,000 and 28 days of time a year to comply with Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations, says a new report.

And while agency representatives say they have taken steps to reduce the cost of complying with federal food processing regulations, the report, from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says it’s not enough.

“The amount of money and time producers spend on meeting the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s requirements can be ridiculous,” says Marilyn Braun-Pollon, agri-business vice-president for the federation. “They are tired of getting the runaround.”

The report surveyed 7,200 agri-businesses with federation membership – 75 per cent of which are considered primary producers – and tallied the total cost of compliance with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at $657 million per year, or $20,396 per agri-business. The report also says that, on average, Canadian agribusinesses spend a total of 28 days every year working to comply with agency regulations.

This report is the second critical review of the agency by the federation. The one previous was published in 2007, and despite the fact that the agency has taken steps to resolve some major problems, both reports list the same issues.

In an email sent Thursday, Rachael Burdman, a CFIA spokesperson, listed several recent improvements at the agency, including:

• establishing a complaints and appeals office in April of 2012;
• publishing a statement of rights and services for producers, consumers, and other stakeholders;
• decreasing the frequency of document filing
• publishing guidance documents for small business on regulatory change proposals;
• developing an “online guidance document repository” to simplify the filing process; and
• modernizing and simplifying its food safety regulatory framework.

Braun-Pollen says, however, the agency’s solutions have not been well publicized. She uses by way of example that only 15 per cent of the surveyed agribusinesses actually knew the agency’s new complaints and appeals office existed.

“Their customer service and communication strategy still needs to improve quite a bit,” says Braun-Pollen. “Only about 20 per cent of the businesses we surveyed said the agency provided good overall service.”

The federation report makes three recommendations to the agency:

• create an online “one-stop” communication portal so businesses can more easily access information and paperwork;
• improve how it measures “the total burden of red tape;” doing so, says the report, would help address unnecessary complications for businesses; and
• improve businesses’ access to the right information when they need it.

“This could be accomplished (by ensuring) its website, guides and bulletins are in plain language, running plain language audits, completing website usability testing, providing examples of what constitutes compliance, setting standard times for responses, and committing to written advice,” says the report.

Burdman says agency staff will continue “to work collaboratively with the CFIB and other stakeholder groups to contribute to a level playing field for industry, while maintaining the highest food safety standards.” BF