Evidence of meeting #146 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cfia.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I don't have specific data but seafood comes in all forms. Some of it comes in a form to be processed here. A great deal happens that way. We also allow fish into Canada fish has already been processed.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
We have some of the world's best fish here, and it would appear that we ship most of it offshore because somebody over there is willing to pay a premium price. Then we import a lot of the fish. Presumably, like televisions and sweatshirts, it's cheap. If Canadians were to buy homegrown fish, shall we say, what premium do you think we would pay? How much more would our fish and chips cost us if we were using Canadian-caught fish?
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, I'm a food safety expert, not an economist. I really can't speculate on that.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I wasn't expecting you to. I just thought I'd lay that question out there to get some people thinking about that, because it does seem to be a little unusual.
One of the issues that comes up—even out my way, where we have the west coast fishery, which is not in great shape, but there's a lot of other food that's grown in Canada—is food sovereignty. It has become a bit of an issue. I am concerned from time to time when we hear of foreign substances ending up in all manner of food products, including dairy products. Cocaine was found in shrimp in Britain, for heaven's sake. What is that all about? How wide open is the trade of seafood in the world? With all due respect for the work you've done or that Oceana has done, it really seems to be kind of a wild west show out there.
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
If you'll permit me, Mr. Chairman, I can respond from a food safety perspective. For the food to come into Canada, it has to comply with Canadian food safety requirements.
Liberal
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
No, but we test 18,000 samples per year for pathogens. We test 500 to 700 samples for veterinary drug residues, approximately 500 for metals and 100 for samples of pesticides. Then we look at other elements, contaminants such as PCBs, dioxins, for instance—and granted, not every fish. They're samples, but our compliance rate is quite high.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Going back to my first question then, do you have any anecdotal evidence of food coming into the country that is clearly not up to standard? If so, do you know where it came from?
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Off the top of my head, no, I don't have any evidence of food coming into Canada that's clearly substandard. If we did, it would be investigated and either held, turned back or destroyed. That's what we do.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
You don't actually keep or publish records on your enforcement activities, or sanctions against those responsible for mislabelling.
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Yes, we do keep records for mislabelling of products. As I said, our data isn't showing a significant impact at the importer level, which I think goes to the nature of your question. It's something we're looking into, as I said, more strongly now that we're taking a more focused look at food fraud. We have traditionally been looking more at the food safety elements, as I said: pathogens, drug residues and elements like that.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Thank you.
I believe Mr. Morrissey wanted to ask a question as well.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
The last group, Oceana, made a reference to 44% of the samples they took at commercial restaurants were mislabelled. Do you agree with that?
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
I have no reason to doubt their data. I think it's probably quite true.
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
It does alarm me. Every case of food without a label corresponding with what it says it's supposed to be should alarm us. It's false and misleading, and I agree there are always food safety risks. We're finding that the challenge is where on the supply chain it is happening. The data seems to show that it's happening a whole lot more in the restaurants and the retail space than it is at the processing plant and the importer. The problem seems to get worse as it goes down the supply chain.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Based on that, what methods would the consumer, meaning the commercial consumer, the restaurant or the seafood broker, have to confirm what they bought? How would they be able to verify that?
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
You're right. That's the root and the biggest problem at issue here. Fish are easy to substitute because they look alike. It's hard to distinguish between them.
Executive Director, Food Safety and Consumer Protection Directorate, Policy and Programs , Canadian Food Inspection Agency
The actual person or entity that should be responsible is the company that broke the law and tried to do whatever it could to dupe it. In terms of catching it, without question, we have to continue to look at how we enforce it. Restaurants are particularly difficult because they are inspected on a regular basis by municipalities and provinces, not necessarily by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It's just hard to be in every single restaurant across the country.
We have found, while we're looking at food fraud, that the best possible case is to be able to trace back to where the root of the problems happen and start looking at that. Certainly, the processors and the importers are where we can make the biggest impact. If there are problems there, we are in there and we have the tools, but you're absolutely right that it's a big challenge once it gets past the regulated entities of processors and importers.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Now to the government side, we have Mr. Calkins for seven minutes or less.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
I really appreciate your referring to this side as the government side, Mr. Chair.