A leaked secret government document revealed plans to “shift from full-time CFIA meat inspection presence to an oversight role, allowing industry to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks” and “eliminate federal delivery of provincial meat inspection programs” in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and BC.NFU Ontario Coordinator Grant Robertson said ... “This is a government that has worked steadily to undermine the role of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as a public watchdog. Harper has cut funding for food safety programs and shifted responsibility for monitoring compliance with safety standards to the food companies themselves.”
Treasury Board forecasts funding for food safety programs were set to decline by nearly 30 percent from $359 million in 2006-07 to $254 million in 2010-2011 – all under the Harper administration.
Since March 31, 2008, CFIA meat inspectors are now directly supervising from the plant floor only 25% of the time, with the rest of their time devoted to reviewing company-generated reports.
The Harper government has also prevented CFIA inspectors from taking direct action when serious health problems arise, instead they are directed to give the offending company a 60-day “corrective action request.”
Finally, when the Harper Government took office in 2006, it phased out the reporting and ranking of meat processing facilities inspected by the CFIA.
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