Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have this opportunity to address a matter that I raised in this House on October 18.
At that time I raised a question and brought a matter to the attention of the Minister of Health pertaining to the very serious and broad issue around food safety.
I specifically asked the government about its intentions with respect to Bill C-80, which was legislation tabled in parliament last spring but not dealt with before the summer recess.
In the interim a most unusual development occurred. The extraordinary public display of concern by 200 staff people in the Department of Health took place. Two hundred scientists in the health protection branch, knowledgeable about the area of food safety and food research, spoke up publicly. That is unheard of. For that large a group of employees within the government to go public with their concerns suggests to me and to members of my party that there is a very deep rooted serious problem within the Department of Health that has not been addressed and continues to fester and cause concerns for all Canadians.
Those scientists went public on September 30 of this year. They called upon the government to reverse its decision with respect Bill C-80 and with respect to the whole erosion of the food safety approach of the government. They were very clear about the problems associated with Bill C-80 and about a number of other developments that have raised serious concerns among Canadians regarding the quality and safety of our food.
Specifically they talked about aspects of the bill that need to be addressed by the government. For example, fundamental to their concerns is a matter pertaining to a conflict of interest in the inspection and surveillance of our food safety system.
The government has shifted responsibility from Health Canada to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency which is a step removed from direct accountability to parliament and involves a serious potential conflict of interest, being an agency that is responsible both for the promotion and marketing of food as well as for the inspection and safety of our food supply. They believe Bill C-80 will take us a step further in that direction.
They also raised concerns about the failure of the government, which is shown in Bill C-80 as it was tabled last spring, around ensuring that genetically engineered foods are safe. They suggest that the legislation will open the floodgates and allow for biotechnology to take place at a very rapid pace in the country without any kind of in-depth research being done to determine the long term impact on human health, on production patterns and on the environment.
They also believe that the bill will neutralize the Minister of Health and prevent him from carrying out his legislated statutory obligations under the Food and Drugs Act.
They have many other concerns, all of which I am sure the government is fully aware of. However, I want to use this opportunity today to ask: Given these concerns, will the government not just simply put Bill C-80 on hold but actually take it right off the agenda and look at restoring the teeth—