Mr. Speaker, if the Conservative government made anything clear through its 500-page kitchen sink budget omnibus bill, it was that transparency was its enemy, despite years of lip service, and good, beneficial, public policy-making was a victim of blind ideology that will leave Canadians individually responsible for regulating, monitoring and protecting the health and safety of their loved ones.
In a move lacking comprehension, the Conservatives particularly targeted the budget of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The budget cut funding by $56.1 million and slashed 234 full-time positions. Never mind that the Weatherill report, on the heels of the listeriosis tragedy, called for 170 inspectors to be added. The government seems to believe that food-borne threats have a shelf life of their own and it can now slash the department. At least this was its answer when it was asked how it could cut the funding dedicated to dealing with monitoring listeria.
Senior management at the CFIA made it clear during an employee town hall that these cuts would have a measurable impact. They told CFIA staff that it was impossible to cut 10% of the budget and not deal with the front line.
Conservatives also suspended key elements of a consumer protection program, completely ignorant of concerned Canadians with nutritional restrictions or specific food allergies. We know what dietary restrictions are important for Canadians suffering from heart disease, diabetes or other ailments and what sort of diet can prevent debilitating illness.
Just prior to when I asked this question, Postmedia ran an article that clearly demonstrated instances of our biggest food brands drastically understating quantities of harmful nutrients while inversely exaggerating health benefits. Of the 600 products tested by the CFIA, more than half had inaccurate or inconsistent labels, with some off by as much as 90%.
Meanwhile, Conservatives think that a mother of a child with celiac disease should be responsible for determining the label's accuracy. To add insult to injury, Conservatives also feel a simple web-based portal should be sufficient for that same mother to seek enforcement not through the government but from the offending company.
Cuts like this have been made before by a Conservative government and they resulted in tragedy when seven people died and hundreds of others became seriously ill from E. coli in Walkerton, Ontario.
The Conservatives refuse to acknowledge that food-borne illness targets the most vulnerable among us in our communities. Seniors and children are hit the hardest. These are the very people we must be working harder to protect. Instead, the top line of Conservative budget cuts is, “Good luck—you're on your own”.
Let us look at what they are doing to trans fats. Health and nutrition experts have been clear that cutting trans fats from Canadian food would not only be immediately better for our health but it would save taxpayers nearly $9 billion over the next 20 years. In 2007, when the Conservatives could not afford to be blindly ideological, they listened to these experts and promised to reduce trans fat usage within two years through monitoring and regulation. However, this summer they not only quietly scrapped limits on trans fats but are now removing monitoring.
On this side, we stand for good government, government that takes seriously its role of protecting the public. I know there are members opposite in the Conservative ranks who do not wish to see another tragedy born from lax inspection of food.
Will the government finally take health and safety seriously and restore the regulations in staffing essential to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency?