What Canadians Need To Know About Bill C-27......

What Canadians Need To Know About Bill C-27 And Deregulated Food Imports

From HalifaxLive.com
By Staff
Aug 23, 2005, 13:20

According to Canada's Auditor General the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency (CFIA) is one the most secretive agencies in the government of Canada. Surveillance and inspection work performed within the agency is hidden from the Canadian public. If Bill C-27 is passed into law during the next sitting of Parliament, that agency would be given unprecedented powers to bypass domestic health regulators and permit the import of food approved by other countries.

Bill C-27, the Canadian Food Inspection Act proposes to radically change the way in which foodstuffs are regulated in Canada with the intent to boost cross-border trade with the United States by bringing Canadian food regulations in line with Washington's. Bill C-27 would combine the increased powers of the CFIA with the Canadian government's plan for "Smart Regulation." Smart Regulation is intended to integrate Canada's regulatory practices with those of the United States in everything from border control to pharmaceuticals and food in order to promote trade.

Critics of the Bill however say that the U.S. system currently permits irradiation of meat, which is not allowed in Canada, has failed to meet World Health Organization guidelines for preventing BSE, and relies on voluntary compliance when companies are found in violation of its regulations. If, for instance, the inspection agency decided to allow irradiated U.S. hot dogs into Canada, it would be harder for Health Canada to argue that domestic producers shouldn't be allowed to do the same.

According to Cathy Holtslander of the Beyond Factory Farming (BFF) Coalition, "Bill C-27 would empower the CFIA to restructure the regulations governing Canada's food and agriculture to put trade ahead of public safety and integration with the United States ahead of democratic Canadian control of what we eat."

Holtslander went on to point out how Bill C-27 would empower the CFIA:

-Would make bilateral agreements that force Canada to adopt the regulatory practices of other countries, primarily the United States.

-Would authorize the privatization of Canadian food inspection services.

-Would share any information about Canadians with foreign governments and private companies, for the investigation, enforcement or administration of any law.

-Would shift regulation from the precautionary principle to risk management in the enforcement of all food and agriculture Acts.


NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) is concerned about provisions in the Bill that will give CFIA inspectors many of the same border powers available to American inspectors under rules of the U.S. Homeland Security Act of 2002 including the right to stop imports of food, seed, feed and fertilizer at the border, the authority to record the origins and destination of imported products and the right to share collected information with other countries. "When we talk about merging our regulatory practices with the United States, we have to ask, are we dumbing down our regulations to go for cross border sales?" Mr. Angus stated. "In the long run, that will affect consumer confidence and if it affects that confidence, it could affect our domestic markets."

Vice-president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, Mel Fruitman, today released a statement questioning why the federal government is pushing such sweeping legislation without "any consultation with consumers". Fruitman has also accused the all-party Committee on Agriculture of secretively adding amendments to Bill C-27 that would ban hundreds of popular food products from being imported into Canada.

Source[/color]