Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight.
I want to begin by giving the minister a well-deserved thanks from not only my constituents in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex but from those in this great country of Canada.
I want to take the opportunity to speak a bit about the listeriosis outbreak that happened in August 2008. First, I will put forward a few facts about what happened.
Regardless of where we are in this House, a tragedy happened and, in all fairness, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those who have been affected by that outbreak.
In terms of the listeria, it is important to understand that the Canadian food safety system is a multi-faceted system, extending over several government departments and agencies and through provincial and municipal governments.
No single arm of government acts alone in situations like the listeriosis outbreak we experienced last summer. An effective response requires first-class systems, flawless collaboration and communication between various agencies and across jurisdictions. Certainly the listeriosis outbreak of 2008 informed the government that it needed to strengthen its policies and its activities around the issues of listeria in food and the health risks it poses to Canadians.
There were also lessons to be learned about providing a tightly integrated response when several organizations at different levels of government need to coordinate with each other.
I will give a brief timeline of the events of last summer related to this outbreak. I will follow that by letting members know what the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which I will refer to as CFIA, and its government partners have done since to strengthen our food safety system with regard to listeria.
When the outbreak was identified by the Public Health Agency of Canada last summer, CFIA worked closely with the agency, Health Canada, provincial authorities, local units of public health and the private sector.
CFIA was first apprised of the situation on August 6, 2008. It was only then that the Toronto Public Health Unit informed the CFIA of two listeriosis illness cases at a Toronto nursing home. It also had preliminary lab results indicating listeria present in the food that had been served at that same location.
From that point onward, CFIA's Office of Food Safety and Recall led around-the-clock food safety investigations to see if there was a link between the listeriosis illness in Toronto and any commercially distributed food.
During the food safety investigation, CFIA worked with its partners at the federal, provincial and public health unit levels, collecting evidence that allowed them to make the link between the contaminated food and the listeriosis illness.
Early on August 17, 2008, based on information and guidance provided by CFIA, Maple Leaf Foods started to a recall on ready-to-eat meat products produced at that plant. Additional food safety investigations resulted in an expanded voluntary recall of other products from the very same plant. The recall for this outbreak represents one of the largest in recent Canadian history.
In addition to its magnitude, the recall was complex, requiring an extensive effort with respect to product traceability and coordination with government partners and industry.
The process involved included: a sampling blitz, with some 348 sample units being tests; 192 Maple Leaf products recalled; and approximately 30,000 recall effectiveness checks completed nationwide. I think that in itself indicates the complexity of what a recall involves.
CFIA conducted operational reviews after the listeriosis outbreak of 2008. Many aspects of the agency's response were reviewed, including how it communicated and coordinated internally. It also analyzed its collaboration with federal partners, other levels of government and industry. It reviewed how it engaged with the Canadian public and the industry.
Beyond communication and coordination, the agency also reviewed its activities at the Maple Leaf plant at Bartor Road. It reviewed inspection records and actions prior to the outbreak and its subsequent investigative activities there.
As the House may be aware, both CFIA and Maple Leaf investigations pinpointed biological material deep inside the slicers at plant 97B as breeding grounds for listeria as the root cause for the outbreak. As soon as this was confirmed, CFIA immediately gave directives to industry for new deep sanitizing procedures for slicers and has subsequently introduced mandatory environmental testing for listeria.
What many Canadians might not know is that Canada used to have a mandatory environmental testing regime prior to 2005. In that year, when the member for Malpeque was parliamentary secretary to the minister of agriculture and the member for St. Paul's was the minister of state for the Public Health Agency of Canada in the last government, environmental testing was cut. It was simply put to an end.
We learned from Michael McCain last month at the subcommittee that despite the Liberal government's cancellation of mandatory environmental testing for listeria, Maple Leaf was taking voluntary tests. Mr. McCain testified that Maple Leaf had some positive listeria tests results beginning in May 2008, leading up to the outbreak in August of 2008.
Under the law then there was no legal obligation to report these results to CFIA. It simply filed the results away in a binder.
I want to read what Dr. Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinary officer, told our subcommittee on listeria what this resulted in. In his opening remarks about environmental testing, he said:
This is important, because looking at aggregate environmental tests over a period of time will provide us with early warning of potential problems so that corrective actions can be taken before a positive test is found in food.
Dr. Evans was very clear that with a history of positive environmental tests, CFIA may have been able to determine problems before something went wrong. It may not have known the specific cause of what was wrong but it would have been in a position to investigate proactively rather than during an outbreak.
Simply put, without reporting the test results to CFIA, the regulatory agency could not have foreseen the tragic outbreak of last year.
All witnesses have agreed that if Maple Leaf's positive environmental test results had been communicated to CFIA prior to July 2008, alarm bells would have rung and this outbreak may have been prevented.
Yes, environmental testing for listeria was eliminated in 2005. Thankfully, however, our Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board has taken steps to undo the mistake of the previous government and has ordered that environmental testing and reporting for listeria become mandatory.
The Conservative government has initiated a stringent environmental testing regime which is now mandatory for industry and CFIA to test and analyze results immediately. These regulations became effect April 1.
I have a question that I would like to put to the minister, if I may. After hearing the results of what happened and understanding a bit about the complexity of it, I believe it is imperative that the minister tell the House and Canadians what our government has done and what steps we have taken to help restore the confidence in food safety in this great country.