Bar-b-quers beware
Every meat slaughter inspection group in Toronto and throughout Ontario is working short-handed, often operating below staffing levels required to ensure meat packing houses are following all safety requirements.
Weatherill food safety measures unraveling – Meat for Canadians inspected less than product destined for export
According to CFIA forecasts, the current government plans to cut spending on food safety by 21% by 2016–17. This will translate to staff cuts of 16.5%, or 548 positions.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency cuts sink consumer protection against food fraud in Metro Vancouver
The unit of food inspectors dedicated to protecting consumers and retailers in Metro Vancouver from food fraud and unsafe retail food displays has been disbanded.
C-4 encourages unsafe workplaces
Ottawa – Work will be more dangerous if proposed changes to health and safety laws in Ottawa’s latest omnibus budget measure, Bill C-4, become law, according to Rob Ellis, whose teenage son was killed at work during his second day on the job.
Ellis, a workplace health and safety advocate, and Bob Kingston, President of the PSAC’s Agriculture Union, are in Ottawa today to urge parliamentarians to change the Bill.
More food inspectors lost due to federal cuts
Thunder Bay/Chatham, ON — The Conservative federal budget Bill, C-45, contains amendments to the Canada Grain Act that will remove requirements that protect grain producers from multinational grain companies, by eliminating the impartial weighing inspection of grain being received at terminal elevators. It will also increase self-regulation and decrease overall inspections.
Canadians kept in the dark for days after US border closed to XL Food products
Canadians kept in the dark for days after US border closed to XL Food products
Ottawa – United States authorities closed the border to products from the E. coli 0157:H7-tainted XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta days before Canadian consumers were advised and a product recall was launched in Canada.
New food safety law needs enforcement teeth
Ottawa – The food safety bill introduced this afternoon is a good start at improving the safety of our food, according to the Agriculture Union which represents federal food inspectors.
“Generally speaking, the bill is a good start but we need to ensure that the proposed appeal mechanism does not give industry too much power to undermine the work of CFIA inspectors,” said Bob Kingston, President of the Union.
Backroom CFIA decisions keep Canadians and Minister Ritz in the dark
Ottawa – CFIA cuts to food safety programs and plans to overhaul food inspection are being withheld from the public amid conflicting statements from the Minister and his senior executives about the cuts and changes, according to the Agriculture Union – PSAC, which represents federal food inspectors.
While Minister Ritz insists that frontline inspectors will be unaffected by budget cuts, CFIA executives say “I don’t know how you take 10% of your budget and not deal with the front line”.
Food safety gouged
Ottawa – The federal government is stripping as many as 100 food safety inspectors from its ranks as a result of budget cuts, more than reversing increases to the inspection force put in place in response to the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak which killed 23 Canadians.
“This decision will make the inspector shortage worse, not better. And because the government has failed to consult its own inspectors, they are cutting food safety blindly with little understanding of the consequences,” says Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union – PSAC, which represents federal food inspectors.
Food Inspectors Union Warns Consumers That Federal Budget Cuts May Reduce Canadian Food Inspection Agency examination of Imports to Below 2%; May Cut Other Food Safety Inspection As Well
Vancouver – The union representing federal food safety inspectors is warning consumers that significant cuts to the public service expected in next month’s budget may reduce the inspection of imported foods to less than two per cent of all products examined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
And the Agriculture Union, a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says a planned Conservative government cut of 10% of all ministries could also reduce the number of food safety staff to levels lower than when the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis crisis hit in 2008, killing 23 consumers and making hundreds seriously ill.