Evidence of meeting #25 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was inspectors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
What I can tell you is that over the years we have seen numbers go up. However, when we canvass the work sites, those are not resulting in people in the field.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
They have recently, but it was only after considerable pressure. As a matter of fact, even after the listeriosis increase in funding, that didn't even begin to happen until about a year and a half afterwards--
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
I apologize; I don't mean to be rude. It's just we're on a limited timeframe.
You have seen dollar numbers go up and you have seen inspectors go up.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
But what is the dollar value that you'd like to see in CFIA?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
It's a resource value in the field where the work is actually being done, as opposed to at headquarters.
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
What I would like to see is an assessment of every program. What happened during listeriosis is one of 14 programs was assessed, and only part of that program. That was partly addressed. None of the other programs--
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Let me just get back to my question, though. I'm sure you've got a lot of great information there, but I'm asking.... You're here, and obviously part of what you want is more money. How much money? How many inspectors? Give me something, so if I wanted to fight for your cause, I can go and fight for it. Give me the dollars.
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
Okay. When we did, to the extent we could, a very off-the-cuff evaluation, we said across the board 1,000 inspectors, and that included professional staff and the veterinarians. So 1,000 front-line workers to shore up every program they had. What happened was they did bring in 170, which was great for the processed-meat program, but it's a small program compared to most of the others, which have never been evaluated.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
But you don't have an overall global dollar number for that?
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
We said 1,000 new personnel, whatever that would cost.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
You made some very serious accusations. Let's be honest. Some of these things, I actually would really like to get to the bottom of them. You said 2% of imports are inspected. That's very disconcerting when I hear that off the top. What percentage of those imports would be low-risk imports? What percentage would be candy or chocolate or something that really, quite frankly--
February 15th, 2012 / 4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
None. We don't look at that. I'm talking about produce that may or may not have pesticide applied to it, products that may or may not be off-gassing with fumigants that have been applied illegally and put on board ships without ever degassing, and that sort of thing.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Sorry, for a more simplistic term, you're talking only 2% of high-risk: meat, dairy, poultry?
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
No, I'm talking about 2% across the board of food products that are agricultural, not--
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
No, not to that extent, not in terms of candy or anything. If you're talking about a can of peaches, I would consider that coming under this umbrella. It's still a base product, just within a can. Those are the things we regulate.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
It would be safe to say meat coming across the border, only 2% of that, roughly, would be inspected by Canadians?
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
The one exception would be meat transborder. If we're talking offshore, it's a totally different picture.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Okay, how about dairy, then, that comes transborder?
4:40 p.m.
National President, Agriculture Union
It's certainly not as high as meat. There's an inspection program, but it's not anywhere near what you would expect in terms of what gets looked at.