The federal health department and health minister are taking
food safety out of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agriculture Minister
Gerry Ritz’s portfolio.
The transition has begun and will be completed as quickly as
possible, federal officials say.
The shift brings three agencies under Health Minister Rona
Ambrose – food safety from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Public Health
Agency of Canada with head offices in Winnipeg and Health Canada.
A “transition team” of
staff from Health Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, CFIA and PHAC has
been set up “to ensure that the transition happens as quickly and seamlessly as
possible.”
CFIA, in a separate statement
Wednesday, said the new reporting structure and changeover “will be taking
place immediately, but it will take some time to complete the transition.”
The agency, “in recognition
of its unique regulatory mandate and federal separate employer status… will
continue to operate as a distinct, separate organization.”
Ritz will still head the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency which will continue to handle animal health,
plant protection and international trade issues.
Ritz has been on the hot
seat several times over CFIA handling of crises, such as a Listeria
monocytogenes outbreak among customers of Maple Leaf Foods Inc.’s products
processed at a plant in Toronto, the largest beef recall in Canadian history at
XL Foods Inc. at Brooks, Alta., and the current outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7
that includes nation-wide distribution of Belmont Meat Ltd. products by the
Loblaws and Sobeys supermarket chains.
It's been a long time coming, but it's a sensible move to put food safety into the Health department. Too often the interests of farmers and meat packers took precedence over the health of Canadians.
And I've seen that happening since the mid-1970s when the federal agriculture department, which was then in charge of meat inspection, allowed Burns Meats Ltd. to keep its plant in Kitchener open while the place literally crumbled to pieces, some of them falling into the meat.
It took a tour by U.S. meat inspectors to force the Canadians to enforce regulations and standards, but not, unfortunately, to revamp the system.
