Agriculture Committee on June 6th, 2013

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

The Weatherill report called for an effectiveness assessment of ready-to-eat meat, and we did that. Out of that, the government came forward with a budget to hire 70 more inspectors for the ready-to-eat meat sector. Since that time, the government has found the resources, and CFIA has put another 100 inspectors into the meat sector across Canada. The inspection verification teams will bring more rigour to what they're doing on-site. They will also judge how effectively any program changes are being handled at the floor level in the plants to make sure they are effective, they are working, and they are hitting the target, in order to know whether the upgrades that are constantly under way are effective.

Gentlemen, do you want to add anything to that?

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

I'm not interested in having you pass it down. I'm going to ask another question.

Mr. Mayers, we get five minutes and then we have to go and vote. So as much as I'd love to hear from you, if we get a chance to come back, we'd love to talk to you again.

The bottom line, Minister, is this. You commissioned this report. You were the minister at the time of Sheila Weatherill's report, even though there was a subcommittee sitting, of which I was a member. You said, “We've done these.” You didn't say “doing”. You gave us a report at this committee that said, “We've done all of these.” Now we get another report that says no, you didn't.

The second recommendation in this brand-new report this year says: “There must be a greater emphasis on training and continuing education of CFIA inspection staff.” You said you did it in 2009, under this report. Sheila Weatherill talks about inspection staff, numbers, resources, training, equipment. You said, sir, “We've done this.” No, you haven't, because your report, which was tabled yesterday, said no, you didn't. Now you've actually had to admit—

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Well, it actually doesn't say that, Mr. Allen.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

—that you don't have enough folks, because you've now got folks checking the folks that you said were enough to do the system, who we find out aren't trained and couldn't do the job. By your own admission, sir, in developing a new team, you've said the folks out there doing CVS for us are maybe not doing it well. Maybe they're not doing it right. Maybe they're failing and we're going to have a team go and check them.

We have checkers checking the checkers. Is this not really an admission that the system has failed, and that you, sir, as the minister in charge of the system, have failed Canadians?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Well, you're taking great liberties with what recommendation number 2 says. You're extrapolating. They're talking about continuing the training, so that means we're doing it. CFIA is doing it. They're also talking about evaluating methods for training inspectors, to get more bang for their buck—effectiveness of training, minimizing costs, and providing appropriate testing mechanisms to ensure competency. That's exactly what the verification teams will be doing. They'll be ensuring that competency.

So I don't understand how you can miss and pervert what is actually said in point number 2, when it's very clear.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Actually, sir, I read it verbatim. The line is, and let me put it in the record—I'll quote it. I did quote it, but I'll say I'm quoting it. At point 2 on page 45, “There must be a greater emphasis on training and continuing education of CFIA inspection staff.”

At the end of the paragraph it says: “CFIA should enhance education support for all inspectors in the Compliance Verification System (CVS) and food safety courses, among others, on an ongoing basis.”

Sheila Weatherill told you to do the same thing at page 39 of her report in 2009. You, sir, have come to this committee repeatedly, and we have debated this, whether you did the audit or not. You said you've done all of the recommendations in the Weatherill report.

It says at point 8, “The Canadian Food Inspection Agency should ensure that inspectors receive timely education and training specific to each function which they perform.” You said, “We've done that.”

Well, your last group says no, you didn't, that you actually have to continue to do it because you haven't done the job. By your own admission, you've now got a group of folks who are going to go out and find out which ones didn't get trained, aren't doing the job properly, because you're going to go and supervise them on spot checks.

Is that not an admission that the system didn't get properly resourced?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

I'll ask the minister to respond, and then we will move forward.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Sure.

President Da Pont would actually like to respond to that.

[George Da Pont]

I go back to the same point. The minister, I thought, made several important points.

First of all, I don't think you can say the system is failing. Every statistic shows that illnesses are going down significantly and we are having success. Every indication is that we have one of the best systems in the world. We have made significant expenditures in training. We post all of our training expenditures, the numbers of people trained and what they're trained in, on our website. I'll be very happy to provide that information to this committee, because it will show we have made significant expenditures since the Weatherill report.

I take this recommendation that we will obviously continue to enhance training. That's why I indicated that in budget 2011, over and above what was initially provided as part of the response to Weatherill, we asked for and received a further $17 million to invest in training over five years.

I agree that training is critical, and I think we have made very significant investments in it. We'll continue to make significant investments in it. I have—

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Chair, let me say this. You had the largest beef recall in Canadian history and you're telling me that training is appropriate. I don't get that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

I'm sorry, I have to stop you here now.

The time that we've allocated for this has expired. I suggest to the committee that after the vote we reconvene here, simply as the committee. We have a report that we have to finalize and sign off on.

We've secured the room for that extra few minutes, so immediately after the vote, please return here as a committee and we'll deal with the report before us.

Minister, we thank you and your staff for today. We appreciate the good work. Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]