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.