Health Committee on Nov. 4th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Standing Committee on Health. It is a pleasure to have some of our people back at committee today.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), this is a study of the implementation of the recommendations of the Weatherill report on the 2008 listeriosis outbreak.

We are very fortunate to have with us, from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Dr. Butler-Jones, Chief Public Health Officer; Dr. Mark Raizenne, director general of the centre for food-borne, environmental, and zoonotic infectious diseases.

On video conference, we have Dr. Frank Plummer, scientific director general from the national microbiology laboratory.

Dr. Plummer, welcome this morning. Can you hear me?

[Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Yes, I can hear you just fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Wonderful. I'm glad that with your very busy schedule you could join us this morning.

We also have, from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Carole Swan, president, and Paul Mayers, associate vice-president, programs. From the Department of Health, we have Glenda Yeates, deputy minister, and Jeff Farber, director of the bureau of microbial hazards, health products and food branch. Welcome.

This morning we'll start with the Public Health Agency of Canada. We have five to ten minutes for a presentation--ten minutes maximum.

We'll start with Dr. Butler-Jones.

[Dr. David Butler-Jones, Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

For the benefit of new committee members, I would like to begin with some context.

Whether it is from the farm to the kitchen or from the kitchen to the table, food-borne outbreaks can and will happen. Food-borne illness normally occurs at home. It happens after unsafe handling or preparation, even when the food supply itself is safe. That's why, whether we're in the business of regulating, policy-making, educating, selling, or consuming, each of us plays a very important role in preventing illness.

In June I had the opportunity to update this committee on many of the government's food safety initiatives, acting on the recommendations contained in the Weatherill report. Government action on all 57 recommendations is either well under way, ongoing, or completed. We have never been in a better position to prevent, detect, and respond to food-borne illness outbreaks in Canada. There is excellent coordination among federal departments, provincial and territorial partners, and key stakeholders. Within the federal government, senior managers are meeting regularly, thanks to valuable forums such as the food safety review special committee of deputy heads.

We have seen the benefits of this improved coordination in action.

It has helped us manage several recent food safety outbreaks, such as the Siena meat recall late last year and the salmonella Chester outbreak this past summer. Today I'll focus briefly on the most recent developments since June related specifically to the agency's role.

I'll begin with outbreak response. The food-borne illness outbreak response protocol, or FIORP, is the key document guiding how governments work together when managing national or international food-borne outbreaks. You will recall that this protocol was endorsed by the provinces and territories in June and posted on the web. The agency will be conducting exercises of the FIORP with provinces and territories this fall and winter. We're also planning for a national exercise in the spring of 2011. To support this, the agency is also developing a food-borne illness emergency response plan and an incident command structure. This will enhance coordination and capacity among all the partners.

Work on a model plan has begun. We'll be seeking input shortly from federal, provincial, and territorial partners on the plan so that it may be finalized the next fiscal year.

Second, I'd like to focus on enhanced surveillance and early detection activities. Surveillance and detection are directed at early identification of outbreaks so that suitable measures can be taken by all involved.

In this context, we are continuing to expand our participation in PulseNet Canada, a national network of federal and provincial labs using DNA fingerprinting to match bacterial samples from humans and food, and we link ourselves to other countries as well. Training and certification programs for PulseNet member labs have now been expanded, as has research capacity at our national microbiology lab in Winnipeg.

I'm pleased to report that the agency has initiated plans for a pilot implementation of Canada Health Infoway's Panorama system. This pilot process will be very useful for us in testing our surveillance to help manage multi-jurisdictional outbreaks. Currently we're testing its integration with our existing alerting systems and seeking input from our partners. We are aiming to complete this process before the end of September in fiscal year 2011-12.

The agency has also made improvements to the national surveillance of listeriosis by adding listeria monocytogenes to the national enteric surveillance program.

The independent investigator recommended the development of surge capacity in dealing with major food-borne illness outbreaks. I'd like to note that key stakeholders are being consulted through a national workshop this month on the development of an agency-led public health reserve pilot, the model for which we aim to complete by March 31, 2011.

Exercising of reservists and assessment of the pilot will be completed by January 2012.

Finally, I'd like to address communications.

One of the issues raised in the Weatherill report was the effectiveness of public communications during an outbreak. We now have a suite of plans in place to guide our actions.

The FIORP, which I mentioned a moment ago, includes provisions that clarify communications responsibilities of the federal, provincial, and territorial partners during an outbreak. The focus is on collaboration for a timely communication with the public and those at risk.

Further, to better achieve coordination at the federal level, the agency worked with Health Canada and CFIA to develop a communications protocol on food safety issues. This protocol identifies the agency as the lead on communications to the public during a national food-borne illness emergency. It is already helping us to improve how we work together when communicating with Canadians during an outbreak, as we saw with H1N1. To help identify how it might be strengthened and to ensure that staff are familiar with it, the protocol will be tested with a series of tabletop exercises over the coming months.

The agency has also developed a strategic risk communications plan that will guide how the agency communicates to Canadians during food-borne illness outbreaks. The plan, which we have begun to implement, includes messages tailored to specific at-risk groups and makes use of a variety of traditional and innovative formats. These formats include the food safety web portal, stakeholder and media briefings, and webcasts. If a national outbreak were to occur, the agency is ready to assume leadership and implement the major elements to the plan as part of its response.

Madam Chair, this provides a broad-strokes overview of activities since June. These and many other activities are detailed in the collaborative report that you have before you, the October 2010 update to “Progress on Food Safety”.

I thank the committee for their interest in the implementation of the recommendations of the independent investigator.

I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have about the Public Health Agency of Canada. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Dr. Butler-Jones.

We'll now go to Glenda Yeates, Deputy Minister of Health.

[Glenda Yeates, Deputy Minister of Health]

Madam Chair, honourable members, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today to provide you with an update on the efforts of Health Canada in fulfilling the recommendations of the independent investigator in her 2009 report.

Joining me today from Health Canada is Dr. Jeff Farber, Director of the Bureau of Microbial Hazards in the Health Products and Food Branch.

As previously expressed to this committee, protecting and promoting the health and safety of Canadians, their families and their communities is of paramount importance to Health Canada.

We take very seriously our role to protect Canadians by minimizing risks not only from listeria but also other food-borne pathogens, chemical contaminants, and other potential hazards.

Health Canada fulfills its regulatory role using its scientific capacity and through effective collaboration with its partners, such as the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and its international counterparts.

Today I'd like to summarize three key areas in which we have taken action in response to the Weatherill report, these being regulatory guidance and approvals, health risk assessments, and communication to Canadians about food safety.

Starting with regulatory guidance and approvals, we have made significant progress in updating our listeria policy. In collaboration with our federal partners and in consultation with industry, academia, health professionals, and consumers, we have revised our policy on listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods. The revised policy was published for consultation in March of this year. After receiving and incorporating feedback, the final revised policy has been made available recently with an effective date of April 1, 2011, to allow for an orderly transition by both industry and compliance and enforcement agents.

It is important to note that our ongoing discussions and interactions with our food industry partners have allowed them to move forward and initiate improvements to their food safety programs throughout this period and to enhance the control of listeria in high-risk foods, such as ready-to-eat meat. The changes made will encourage early identification of contaminants in processing facilities and enhance prevention and early detection. This will allow corrective action to avoid contamination of finished products.

In addition, to improve timely detection and identification of food-borne pathogens, Health Canada has been validating a novel method for the testing of listeria. This method shortens the current analysis timeline from seven to ten days to three to five days. We are now in the last steps of the validation process and anticipate that the method will be available for use in April 2011.

We are also collaborating with the National Research Council to develop a microchip-based method for listeria detection, which if it proves successful would allow for results, in future, in 48 hours.

To address another finding in the independent investigator's report, Health Canada has established a new process that allows us to prioritize and fast-track the approvals of food safety interventions with proven health benefits. Through this process, Health Canada has been able to approve the use of two food additives that can help control the growth of listeria monocytogenes as well as a novel high-pressure manufacturing process to reduce microbial hazards from food. To further address this issue, Health Canada is developing guidelines for industry that set out the criteria being used to prioritize submissions pertaining to these interventions.

With regard to health risk assessment capacity, we continue to strengthen our surge capacity by hiring and training more scientific risk assessors to respond to food safety events and to continue to provide 24/7 health risk assessments to CFIA. In Health Canada, we have increased our capacity by six full-time equivalents over the last two years and we are in the process of hiring an additional seven scientific health risk assessors. We have also cross-trained additional staff to provide surge capacity, if needed, during food safety events.

Using this improved capacity, between April 1, 2010, and September 30, 2010, Health Canada evaluators conducted 108 health risk assessments to assist in food safety investigations conducted by CFIA. All of these were completed in less than the eight-hour service standard established for the most serious level of risk.

Finally, in terms of communications, we are continually looking for ways to improve how and when to communicate the risks of food-borne pathogens to Canadians.

For example, we are well under way with a three-year risk communication and social marketing campaign. This campaign kicked off in March of this year and seeks to provide Canadians with information not only on listeria, but on issues of how to handle food safely and how to avoid food-borne illnesses in general.

We are making a particular effort to target those segments of the population that are at a greater risk of complications from food-borne illness, such as older adults, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems.

Currently, our campaign includes magazine advertisements and the addition of booklets designed specifically to target each of the previously mentioned vulnerable groups. The combined circulation of these magazines is close to two million.

We've also launched web-based communications efforts that feature videos and interactive tools, which can also target these groups and identify specific actions that can be taken to help reduce their risk for food-borne illness. For example, in our video targeted for older adults, there are tips for buying and storing food products safely, as well as information on those foods to avoid.

Health Canada will also be working with our partners at the provincial, territorial, and local levels to ensure the food safety material developed is available in multiple languages. We will complement the efforts that are already being made to ensure that all Canadians are able to obtain and understand the steps they can take to help reduce the risk of food-borne illness.

I hope my presentation today provides the committee with a sense of our progress in response to the recommendations from the report of the independent investigator.

These measurable improvements enhance how we assess the risks to our food products and better enable us to collaborate with our federal partners to better address those risks.

In closing, as I mentioned at the outset, I reiterate our commitment to promoting the safety of food for all Canadians.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear before the committee today. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have later. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you very much, Ms. Yeates.

We'll now go to Carole Swan, the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

[Carole Swan, President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the opportunity to share with you the progress that has been made by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the recommendations made by Sheila Weatherill.

We are working closely with all the players in the food safety system, including producers, processors, other levels of government, and consumers, to improve food safety for Canadians. All of us--government, industry, and consumers--share responsibility for an effective food safety system. Our food safety system in Canada is among the best in the world.

As my colleagues have noted, the government's recently released food safety progress report sets out our progress on the recommendations of the independent investigator. I would like to briefly highlight three goals against which we have made significant progress: inspection capacity, communications and information, and collaboration.

First, on inspection capacity, significant new resources have been added for food inspection activities. We are hiring 170 additional inspectors. As of this week, we have 150 of those inspectors on staff. The rest will be hired and trained over the next few weeks. This will improve our capacity significantly.

In addition, significant effort has gone into improving our training program for both new inspectors and existing staff.

While our initial effort is focused on training new inspectors, more systematic and updated refresher training will be delivered to all inspection staff. This training will help agency staff keep abreast of developments in science, technology and new testing methods.

The second area I will highlight is communications and information. Recognizing that an informed public is an important factor in the fight against food-borne illness, we are using new means to provide better information on food safety risks. The consumer centre section of the CFIA website has been redesigned to provide more information on important food safety issues and to more clearly explain the roles that consumers, government, and industry play in food safety. In addition, we are in the process of setting up a consumer round table as an ongoing mechanism for better communications between the CFIA and consumers. Technology such as Twitter is being used by the CFIA to communicate information on food safety issues and recalls.

We continue to engage with Canadians through national public information campaigns. We are also sharing more information on lower-risk recalls and on food-producing establishments that have had enforcement actions taken against them.

In terms of collaboration, the CFIA continues to work closely with its federal food safety partners, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada. The CFIA has worked with the Public Health Agency to develop a comprehensive risk communications strategy that will guide how the agency communicates to Canadians during a national food-borne illness outbreak. Health Canada and the CFIA are improving and validating detection methods for listeria and other hazards in food to reduce testing time and enable more rapid response during food safety investigations.

Several of the Weatherill recommendations were directed at industry. The CFIA is meeting regularly with representatives of industry and uses these opportunities to assess how best to work together to further improve food safety within the context of our regulatory responsibilities. As I noted, we have one of the best food safety systems in the world due in large part to the professionalism and dedication of agency staff and staff in Health Canada, Public Health Agency, and the collaboration of our partners. We will continue to work with our partners to improve the system and to inform Canadians of our progress in this very important area.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Ms. Swan.

We'll now go to our first round of Q and As, and that will be seven minutes for the question and the answer.

We'll begin with Mr. Dosanjh.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Thank you.

And I thank all of you for being here.

I have essentially two questions, and they're for CFIA.

You have given us some information about the number of inspectors. A release was issued by the Agriculture Union this morning. In light of that, I'm going to ask you a question.

They estimate there were more inspectors working in the non-slaughter meat establishments before the Maple Leaf Foods outbreak than the number of inspectors CFIA estimates are required today. Prior to the outbreak, there were approximately 220 inspectors who devoted the vast majority of their working day to CVS--compliance verification system--tasks in these meat establishments. Today, CFIA estimates it needs only 155 FTE inspectors to cover the same territory. Even adding the FTEs for non-CVS work—and you know all that jargon—the total would still fall short of staffing levels before the outbreak.

You've given us some numbers, and I don't know whether they tally. I just quoted from the press release that came this morning.

This is a very serious allegation, if it's true. Could you please respond with specific data—not with what you might have thought this morning or yesterday, but with very specific data—to the statement from the Agriculture Union?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Ms. Swan.

[Carole Swan]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have not seen the statement from the Agriculture Union this morning, but I can tell you we know we had over 3,000 inspectors in March of 2010. The number of inspectors in CFIA has been increasing steadily. In fact, the government has added 538 new inspectors since March of 2006.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Can you respond to the specific allegation, and that is that prior to the outbreak there were approximately 220 inspectors who devoted the vast majority of their working day to the CVS tasks in these meat establishments? Today you believe, according to them, that work can be done by 155 FTEs. Is that true or not?

[Carole Swan]

I believe what the Agriculture Union is referring to is the document that was tabled along with the progress report, which confirmed the CFIA's assessment of inspector time needed on CVS. CVS of course is our compliance verification system.

It is true that we have more inspectors now working on compliance verification than we had before, and we are hiring 170 new inspectors.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

So do you have more than 220 working on CVS? That's what they say--that you had them before the Maple Leaf incident.

[Carole Swan]

Again, I don't have in front of me what the Agriculture Union has released.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I'm telling you what they have said. They're saying “220 inspectors...devoted the vast majority of their working day to CVS tasks” before the outbreak. Do you have 220 working today?

[Carole Swan]

We have more than 220 inspectors working on meat today. In fact, most of our inspectors work on meat. A large part of the time of many inspectors is spent on CVS. We don't have inspectors who do only CVS. CVS is a part of what meat inspectors do.

I can tell you we have more inspection capacity on CVS now than we did prior to the outbreak.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Are you saying that the allegation they make is untrue?

[Carole Swan]

I'm saying that we have more inspection capacity on CVS at this time than we did prior to the outbreak.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

All right.

I have a second question, and it also relates to what they essentially have said. The Weatherill report outlined several critical areas in the food inspection system that were deficient. Among their findings was that the CVS implemented just before the Maple Leaf Foods outbreak was flawed and in need of critical improvements related to its design, planning, and implementation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

On a point of order, I think we were asked to deal with the health issues, and I believe that certainly the agricultural committee is dealing with agriculture and the number of inspectors. Is this an appropriate part of this?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Yes, we need to stick to the topic.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

What's the topic, Madam Chair? Don't take my time, but what's the topic?