Agriculture Committee on March 12th, 2012

[Pierre Corriveau]

Mr. Chair, I would like to answer that question.

Direct cuts are at around $3.8 million and they are related to the latest strategic review program. As the minister explained, reductions have to do with a type of forecast. They are around $47 million and affect BRM programs. Given the link to demand, we will come back to that, as required, for the supplementary estimates (A), (B) and (C).

There is a total of about $100 million. In terms of the main component, which is the administration of BRM programs, we are talking about $58.4 million or so. The department is in the process of getting the authorization required to set that up. In the next estimates, there will be an amount for that.

One of the programs that ended this year is the slaughter improvement program. There is also the community development fund for rural communities in tobacco-producing regions. That refers back to the question you asked the minister just now about rural programs. That is the program that ended this year.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

You have a little less than two minutes left.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Once again, on the main estimates 2011-2012, operating expenditures for BRM programs went down by about 63%.

Could you tell us more about how the department was able to make those cuts?

[Pierre Corriveau]

Like I said, we are in the process of obtaining authorization for that.

My colleague might be able to tell you how we are improving the delivery of programs that are not really directly related to the financial system. We will come back to that in the supplementary estimates.

[Rita Moritz]

As Pierre mentioned, this is not a reduction per se, given that we are trying to get authorization right now. Meanwhile, we are trying to improve the administration of those programs. On a number of occasions, some of our clients mentioned improvements that could be made. We are working with our colleagues in the provinces that are delivering those programs. In some cases, the federal government is responsible for that and, in other cases, it is the provinces. We are really working on improving the administrative component and we are always trying to reduce costs. That is not what the numbers show, but we continue working in that direction.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

You have about 30 seconds, if you want it.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you for being here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

With that, we'll move to Mr. Lemieux. You have the last five minutes.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thanks.

Let me just say thank you again for being here.

I'd like to talk a little bit about food safety. As you know, food safety is very important. As I go through the mains, I see that there are some reductions in food safety. A natural knee-jerk reaction is that cuts to food safety are very bad. I think that there are other explanations. For example, there's a line item called “Internal Services”. I'm seeing a reduction of close to $14 million. It's $13,905,000. I'm assuming that internal services would capture things like hospitality, perhaps photocopying, and travel, which are things that support the work of CFIA in a more general sense but aren't the core work of CFIA.

I'm wondering if you can comment on those types of savings. If these are administrative savings, I'd say that those are good savings. You're reducing the overhead in the food safety system, and that's a good thing. That reduction or those savings should not be misunderstood.

I'm wondering if you could comment on that.

[Peter Everson, Vice-President, Corporate Management, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you.

Of the nearly $14 million, about $11 million is related to Shared Services Canada, which was established in August last year. That represents a resource transfer to that agency. In that sense, we still receive the services. It's part of the government's movement to rationalize that whole area of government and to reduce costs.

We maintain very stringent oversight of the other overhead activities. We have driven down hospitality by 13% and travel by 20% this year. We try to squeeze as much as we can from our overhead.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That's good. As I said, I think that's commendable.

A first reaction when you see a reduction in spending by CFIA is that it's somehow bad. Actually, these are good cost savings. They are good initiatives.

I'd also like to talk a little bit about food inspectors. We had this conversation in one of our committee meetings. We were studying Growing Forward 2. We had CFIA here, and then we had Bob Kingston here. In particular, in the discussions with Bob Kingston, I was explaining that there are sometimes areas where perhaps fewer food inspectors are needed on the federal side of things, because we are transferring responsibility to the provinces, which is where they rightly belonged in the first place, but for some reason we have been doing it.

I'm thinking of inspections of some of the provincial slaughterhouses in some of our western provinces. I believe that we're having a look at that and saying that it is actually a provincial responsibility. We're transferring that responsibility back to the provinces, which is where it belonged in the first place. Of course you won't need federal inspectors to continue inspecting provincial slaughterhouses, so you might see a reduction, perhaps, in the number of inspectors. That's not a bad thing. That's simply a transfer of responsibility back to the provinces, where it should have resided in the first place.

I'm wondering if you can comment on some of those changes that might be captured in the estimates.

[Barbara Jordan, Associate Vice-President, Operations, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you for that question.

We have for many years delivered inspection activities in three of the ten provinces: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. In delivering those services, under an arrangement with those provinces—all provinces in Canada have their own inspection regimes—we have been working with them to deliver against the standards set out in those individual provinces. Those are the only three provinces where we provide that service. The other provinces, in addition to setting their own food safety regimes, deliver the inspections within their provinces.

Consistent with your earlier question, we are working very hard at the agency to bring down administrative costs and to ensure that we are focusing on our areas of responsibility. With that in mind, we are working with those three provinces to transfer responsibility for delivering provincial meat inspection systems back to those provinces.

A number of CFIA employees are involved in that. We have 68 federal meat inspectors involved in that transition, and that transition will take place over the next 18 months or so.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Right. Just to summarize, what we would be seeing, then, is a savings at the federal level, but there's no change in food safety because the responsibility has simply been transferred to provincial inspectors, who are now conducting provincial inspections on provincial facilities.

[Barbara Jordan]

That's absolutely right. The safety systems themselves are not changing; it is a question of who is doing the delivery.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Very good. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I'd like to thank the witnesses for being with us here today. We appreciate it.

I'd just remind the members that we have some motions here to deal with.

Shall votes 1, 5, and 10 under Agriculture and Agri-Food, vote 15 under the Canadian Dairy Commission, votes 20 and 25 under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and vote 30 under the Canadian Grain Commission carry?

AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD Agriculture and Agri-Food Vote 1--Operating expenditures..........$620,125,000 Vote 5--Capital expenditures..........$26,747,000 Vote 10--Grants and contributions..........$423,115,000 Canadian Dairy Commission Vote 15--Program expenditures...........$3,935,000 Canadian Food Inspection Agency Vote 20--Operating expenditures and contributions..........$536,869,000 Vote 25--Capital expenditures..........$14,583,000 Canadian Grain Commission Vote 30--Program expenditures..........$4,830,000

(Votes 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 agreed to)

Shall the chair report votes 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 under Agriculture and Agri-Food to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

That is carried, and I will do my best to do that tomorrow morning shortly after 10 o'clock.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.