Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. My name is Jim Laws. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Meat Council. Joining me today is Mr. Joe Reda, first vice-president and treasurer of the Canadian Meat Council and chief executive officer of Les produits alimentaires Viau Inc., who will be making some comments after mine.
The Canadian Meat Council has been representing Canada's federally inspected meat packing and processing industry since 1919. Today the council comprises 52 regular members who process meat, 90 associate members who supply goods and services to the industry, and three retail and food service members.
The meat industry is by far the largest component of Canada's food processing sector, accounting for some $23.6 billion in sales and $5.5 billion in exports, providing some 65,000 jobs and economic development in urban and rural communities across Canada. ln the case of labour, the meat industry alone accounts for 26% of the jobs in Canada's food processing sector. This number would be even greater if the industry were able to find workers to fill the many hundreds of vacancies that currently are jeopardizing the future sustainability of the livestock and meat sector.
On behalf of the member companies, I wish to thank you for the opportunity to present our perspective on your study on promoting the domestic trade of agricultural and agrifood products by reducing interprovincial barriers to trade.
The first and most critical point I wish to emphasize today is that food safety and quality should not be compromised by commercial considerations. Quite to the contrary: commercial considerations should be harnessed to increase the pursuit of enhanced food safety and quality. This perspective should be the pre-eminent consideration underlying the promotion of domestic trade of agricultural and agrifood products.
The second fact I wish to highlight is that the domestic and the international markets for meat are not distinct. To the contrary: there is a very direct and crucial linkage between domestic policies and regulations and the ability of the livestock and meat sector to access international markets.
The third element to underline is that the most effective manner by far to reduce barriers to trade, regardless whether it be in an interprovincial or an international context, is to harmonize requirements at a high level. The harmonization of requirements at a high level not only facilitates interprovincial and international trade but reduces concerns about lower standards that may result from unfair competition between parties.
lt is absolutely essential that the Canadian livestock and meat sector be present in international markets. The stark reality for livestock producers, as well as for meat packers and processors, is that Canadian beef and pork industries would be decimated in the absence of access to export markets. Those export sales account for more than 50% of the Canadian beef production and more than 60% of the Canadian pork production. ln addition, the livestock and meat sector constitutes a vital market for Canadian grain farmers.
Undeniably, the single most important factor in securing and maintaining access to those export markets is the creation and constant reassurance of foreign customers' confidence in Canada's food safety system. At present, all Canadians gain from the existence in this country of one of the best-performing food safety systems in the world. Nevertheless, even with the benefit of a globally recognized food safety system, Canadian regulatory officials and industry representatives must engage in constant and unwavering effort to sustain the country's hard-earned access to currently more than 120 countries to which Canada exports meat. Without the invaluable advantages associated with foreign confidence, access to critical export markets would be placed in jeopardy very quickly.
Given this reality, it is not surprising that food safety is priority number one for Canada's federally inspected meat packers and processors. We work in collaboration with Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to ensure a scientifically robust, innovative, and globally recognized food safety system.
The pursuit of food safety necessitates strict and verifiable adherence to a multitude of government regulations and industry standard operating procedures that extend from the health of animals that arrive at abattoirs to the physical characteristics of establishments, the equipment used, the health of the workers, the processes that follow, and the samples of the products that are analyzed.
Not only must federally inspected establishments ensure adherence to a high-level hazard analysis and critical control points program, or HACCP, but abattoirs are permitted to function only when Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarians are present. Moreover, not only must adherence to all requirements be satisfactory to the Canadian regulatory authorities; the level of adherence must be acceptable to foreign bodies.
lt is for this reason that the country's federally inspected meat packers and processors believe Canada should phase out the current two-tiered level of food safety that presently exists in this country. The two-tiered level of food safety is characterized first by a system of federal regulation and inspection that meets the significantly more stringent requirements of export markets, and secondly by a variety of provincial systems that exist for historic reasons and because of added investment and costs that are necessary to satisfy the more stringent federal requirements.
Not only does the current system provide a two-tiered level of food safety for Canadians; it reduces the level of confidence that critical export markets have in Canada's food safety system. The concern that the federally registered meat packing and processing establishments and cold storages have about the two-tiered system was evident last summer when the industry was questioned by counterparts in other countries about the characteristics and still-undefined origin of a major E. coli 0157 outbreak in Alberta that resulted in 119 confirmed cases of illness.
On July 29, 2014, Alberta Health Services opened an E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak investigation in Alberta. When we first saw the recall notice—“Food Recall Warning—Raw pork products sold by V&T Meat and Food, Calgary, Alberta and Hiep Thanh Trading, Edmonton, Alberta recalled due to E. coli O157:H7”—our hearts almost stopped. E. coli in pork was unheard of. The Alberta outbreak investigation team reviewed the investigation findings and concluded that the cause of this outbreak was exposure to contaminated pork products that were produced and distributed in Alberta in a provincially inspected meat plant.
Unfortunately, unlike what is typically done at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canadian Public Health Agency, there still is no lessons learned document published by Alberta Health Services for this outbreak. Nor do we know the root cause of this significant outbreak last summer in Alberta, which sickened seven times as many people as the E. coli outbreak from XL Foods of 2012, in which 18 people were sick. We have all heard of that one. This outbreak last summer caused 119 people to become sick and many to be hospitalized.
We don't know for certain where the problem started. Allegedly it was from a small Alberta-inspected meat slaughter facility that processed both hogs and cattle, which then resulted in contaminated pork. We do know that none of the meat came from a federally inspected facility.
We need to know exactly what happened there. A problem in one facility is a problem for everyone, and we don't want that event to be repeated. While the objective of more interprovincial trade of meat is understandable, the main objective must be to reduce the presence of pathogens to the lowest possible level and to harmonize all the rules.
We get it: it does sound illogical that a meat product produced at a provincially inspected plant in, let's say, Kenora, Ontario, can be sold almost 2,000 kilometres away here in Ottawa but cannot travel across into Manitoba and be sold at nearby Winnipeg, Manitoba. But from our standpoint, it is equally illogical for our federally inspected meat establishments that we must operate and compete in a domestic market in which there is such a variety of rules. Every province has different meat inspection rules, and some have very infrequent inspection.
ln conclusion, the best option for reducing interprovincial barriers and promoting trade of meat products in both the Canadian and export markets would be to terminate the existence of a two-tiered system of food safety regulation and inspection in this country. lt is the year 2015. We really should expect no less.