On the role of government in food inspection, Option Consommateurs believes that the Government of Canada has a duty of care. In matters of food safety, the duty of care is to inform and protect citizens from harm by promptly informing the public when a contaminated product is identified and to order a prompt recall. We believe that government has a fiduciary responsibility to its citizens, that it stands in a special relationship of trust, confidence, or responsibility to taxpayers, and this has been diminished greatly by the loss of 22 lives and the untold suffering of many more.
Nik Nanos, of Nanos Research—a pollster familiar to all sides of the House—conducted a national survey of 1,001 Canadians, 18 years old and above, from April 25 to May 3, on behalf of the Agriculture Union, a wing of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and it revealed that the consumers of Canada trust their government more than industry to guarantee the safety of their food.
We have outlined for you some of the findings. Only 12.4% of Canadians have a high level of trust in food companies to assess themselves when it comes to safety and compliance. Neither side fared well when Canadians were asked specifically how best to describe last summer's deadly listeriosis outbreak after contaminated processed meat made its way into the marketplace.
For the CFIA, regrettably, the consumer is invisible. Nowhere on the website is there a mention of the consumer, the citizen, the taxpayer, whose spending generates over 60% of the GNP of this country.
Minister Ritz has said:
The ultimate role for CFIA and for public health, provincial health agencies, and so on, is public safety, to make sure that the food supply is safe.
We ask, “Safe for whom?”
Ms. Weatherill, who is leading the other inquiry into food safety, has created an advisory panel of experts. There are academics there—some with ties to industry—and industry representatives, but no representatives of the very consumers who bore the brunt of the listeria crisis. We were able to track her down after much sleuthing.
You've heard from a representative of the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, who says that consumers have to be taught about food safety and are looking for information. We agree with her and we say that we need impartial, clear, timely, and jargon-free information presented in simple English and French, so that people with literacy challenges and the newcomer population are not disadvantaged.
For consumers, CFIA is uncharted territory, but this is in stark contrast with Health Canada, which welcomes and facilitates consumer participation through joint committees and frequent consultations. A regulatory agency like CFIA does not have to be in an adversarial relationship with consumer groups. Indeed, in the U.K., Consumer Focus, which was formerly the National Consumer Council, and the Food Standards Agency co-exist quite well, and the NCC gives it very good ratings for openness. But we have been frustrated when trying to obtain information from the CFIA during the listeria crisis.
François, would you like to address CFIA's schizophrenic mandate?