Ottawa to spend less on food safety this year

Conservatives deny cuts have been made

The Conservative government, under fire for its response to a massive beef recall and E. coli scare, is planning to spend tens of millions of dollars less this year on food safety programs at the Agriculture Department and Canadian Food Inspection Agency than last year, new numbers from Parliament’s budget watch- dog indicate.

This comes as Canada’s food inspection agency admitted Wednesday that on some days in late August and early September more than five per cent of the meat produced at an Alberta plant was testing positive for a potentially fatal bacteria.

An analysis of expected federal spending released Wednesday by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer says approved budgetary expenditures on “food safety and biosecurity risk management systems” at the Agriculture Department are 27 per cent lower in 201213 compared with the previous fiscal year, while planned “food safety program” funding is about five per cent less at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

During an emergency debate Wednesday night in the Commons, the government denied that it had cut spending at the CFIA.

“Contrary to what some have asserted, we have made significant investments in food safety,” said Pierre Lemieux, the parliamentary secretary to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. “There has been no cut.”

“They are cutting corners and that cutting of corners has led to this outbreak,” said Liberal MP Frank Valeriote during the emergency debate.

“We have some of the finest inspectors in the world, but they are hamstrung by a lack of resources,” Valeriote said. “Clearly, we have seen the industry … can no longer be left alone to police itself.”

The new PBO examination of budgetary expenditures by strategic outcome and program activity says planned spending for “food safety and biosecurity risk management systems” at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is projected to be reduced by almost $32 million, to approximately $85 million in 2012-13 from more than $116 million in 2011-12.

At CFIA, planned federal spending on the “food safety program” is projected to shrink almost $16 million, to $315 million in 2012-13 from $331 million in 2011-12, according to the PBO analysis, which was released Wednesday with a report on the government’s first-quarter spending trends.

The Harper government promised in the March federal budget an additional $51 million over two years to enhance food safety. Since it came to power in 2006, the Conservative government says it has provided funding for the CFIA to hire more than 700 new inspection staff, including 170 dedicated to meat inspection.

However, the union representing inspectors disputed those numbers, saying that 200 of those new staff are responsible for protecting the food chain from invasive species, nothing to do with checking for E. coli.