The CFIA is currently in an unacceptable conflict of interest position. It reports to the Minister of Agriculture and promotes production and trade while concurrently enforcing the food safety legislation in the Food and Drugs Act. Bill C-80 would exacerbate this already dangerous situation by essentially transferring control over food safety from the Minister of Health to the Minister of Agriculture. Failure to do so will be disastrous to the health of infants, children and adults, as well as to Canadian food producers and manufacturers. We are deeply concerned that the CFIA has proceeded in the opposite direction and reduced inspection staff without assessing the impact of this on health.
Prevention is much less expensive than remedial action.
B. Research and staff shortages. Also, there is still no Food Directorate permanent intramural safety research on registered pesticides, biotechnology-modified foods, veterinary drugs and national nutritional status. There was and remains an acute shortage of scientists for evaluations and risk assessments. Permanent staffing to address all the above is strongly recommended. We urge you to ensure that our managers thoroughly know what they are managing, have well defined individual responsibility and authority over the areas they need to fulfill their responsibility, take their responsibilities seriously, and be accountable for their actions or failure to act.