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.

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

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.

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.

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”.

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.