CFIA Inspectors Seek Strict Rules on Food Imports
(Postmedia News)
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is wrong when it says food imports are screened as rigorously as exports – and is creating a “ticking biological time bomb” in Canada with the lack of oversight, the government’s food inspectors charged Wednesday.
Bob Kingston, president of the union representing CFIA food inspectors, took on the agency’s claim during parliamentary hearings on the future of Canada’s agricultural policy framework.
“There may be one set of rules, but they are certainly not applied the same,” Kingston testified Wednesday about import inspection and testing compared to domestically produced food bound for other countries.
“Export inspection always gets top priority in spite of what CFIA may say publicly. It’s 100 per cent versus two per cent.”
Kingston was responding to comments made at the hearings Monday by CFIA’s Paul Mayers in response to a question from Tory MP Ben Lobb. Read more here.
Date: February 17, 2012
