Ottawa, October 7, 2026 – A union representing inspectors at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is sounding the alarm over vulnerabilities in our food system following allegations that American farming giant Driscoll’s knowingly shipped millions of berries to Canada with pesticide levels far exceeding national legal limits. The Agriculture Union, which represents 4000 employees at the CFIA, says that Trump’s gutting of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should serve as a warning sign to Mark Carney to rethink his budget cuts to the CFIA.
“Roughly half of our overall food imports come from the USA. Trump’s massive cuts to the FDA have thrown the quality of those imports into question. The latest scandal with Driscoll’s is just the latest example, but inspectors and food safety experts agree that many could follow in the months or years to come,” says Milton Dyck, National President of the Agriculture Union. “The scandal at Driscoll’s is proof that a strong inspection system needs to be maintained and enhanced for our food imports. Strong checks are needed to make sure that the food on your plates is safe to eat. And yet the Carney government is chipping away at the capacity of the CFIA to properly do its job”.
Canadians should be concerned about the safety of American food imports, and yet the Carney government is doing little about it. Last year, the CFIA quietly struck a “U.S. risk task team” to monitor the impacts of Trump’s cuts at the FDA. Reduced FDA inspection capacity has also been cited as a factor in the delayed detection of last summer’s massive Cyclospora outbreak in lettuce, which infected roughly 20,000 Americans with “explosive diarrhea” and led to two deaths in Michigan.
“The Driscoll’s incident is a stress test for our food safety system,” explains Dyck. “Luckily no one got sick from eating these berries, but the incident has already prompted a class action lawsuit in Quebec. The CFIA had already admitted that it would have a hard time handling multiple emergencies at once before Carney made his cuts. Given the uncertain quality of the food we may now be importing from the USA, when will the Carney government step up to support the CFIA and prioritize the health of its own citizens?”
The debate around pesticide use came back into the national spotlight last summer, months before Driscoll’s berries ended up in the headlines. In June, the federal government passed Bill C-30, giving cabinet the power to authorize previously banned pesticides under the name of “national economic or food security”. The Bill was denounced at the time by the Agriculture Union along with other farming and environmental groups.
“The story doesn’t begin or finish with these Driscoll’s berries,” continues Dyck. “The government needs to start listening to CFIA workers and food safety experts. Stop the cuts and reinvest to put food safety first”.
For media requests, please contact:
Aaron Lakoff, Communications Officer for the Agriculture Union, 343-596-4400, LakoffA@psac-afpc.com