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About the CFIA > Reporting to Parliament > Annual Report > Annual Report 2001 - 2002
1.0 AGENCY OVERVIEW1.1 Our MissionAs a key science-based federal regulator of food, animals, and plants, the CFIA is committed to enhancing the safety of food produced, sold or imported into Canada, contributing to the health of animals, and protecting the plant resource base. To meet these commitments, the Agency administers and/or enforces 13 federal acts and their respective regulations. 1.2 What We DoThe CFIA is the Government of Canada's regulator for the following: Food SafetyReporting to Parliament through the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the CFIA delivers all federal inspection and enforcement services related to food. Primarily, this entails verifying that manufacturers, importers, distributors, and producers meet Government of Canada regulations and standards for safety, quality, quantity, composition, handling, identity, processing, packaging, and labelling. The CFIA also meets foreign country requirements where inspection/certification agreements are in place. In carrying out its mandate to administer statutes and regulations related to food, the CFIA works closely with Health Canada, the department responsible for food-safety policy and standards.
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The CFIA works to prevent animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, from entering Canada and to control the spread of animal diseases, such as bovine tuberculosis, within Canada. When disease outbreaks occur, the CFIA acts to eradicate them. To keep the food chain secure, the CFIA regulates veterinary biologics (which can include vaccines, bacterium, bacterin-toxoids, immunoglobulin products, diagnostics kits, and veterinary biologics derived through biotechnology) and animal feeds. The Agency also conducts regular animal disease surveillance programs that have been designed to head off serious threats to livestock. In addition, the CFIA certifies the health of Canada's animal exports, evaluates the safety of imports, and regulates the humane transportation of animals.
The CFIA works to prevent foreign plant pests, such as the Asian long-horned beetle, from getting into Canada and to control the spread of quarantine pests, such as plum pox virus, within Canada. The Agency verifies that seeds and fertilizers, both domestically produced and imported, comply with federal standards for safety, product, and process. CFIA plant health officials certify that plants, plant material, and other related matter intended for export from Canada comply with the phytosanitary import requirements of foreign countries. The CFIA also works within various international organizations in support of the international control of plant pests.
With its headquarters in the National Capital Region, the CFIA is organized into four operational areas (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, and Western) that are subdivided into 18 regional offices, 185 field offices (including border points of entry), and 408 offices in non-government establishments, such as processing facilities. We also have 21 laboratories and research facilities that provide scientific advice, develop new technologies, provide testing services, and conduct research.
The CFIA's workforce is approximately 5467 employees strong. CFIA personnel include highly trained front-line inspectors, veterinarians, agrologists, biologists, chemists, administrative staff, computer system specialists, financial officers, communication experts, research scientists, laboratory technicians, and managers.
International food safety and animal and plant health frameworks provide an essential architecture to support the trade of food, animals, and plants. The continued development of a harmonized international regulatory framework, which is both science- and rules-based, benefits Canadians by providing them with safe products from international and domestic markets. Canadian food and agricultural products are in high demand by consumers worldwide. At home, changing consumer expectations result in Canada importing a wide range of products from an ever increasing number of countries.
The CFIA is a leader in responding to these trends on the international front. The Agency invests considerable effort to influence international standard-setting organizations. The CFIA manages a number of product-specific bilateral arrangements and protocols in the areas of food safety and animal and plant health. Also, there are international agreements and institutions related to food safety, animal health, plant protection, the environment, and trade. Together, they comprise the international regulatory framework in which the CFIA operates. Our main objective is to ensure that this framework, as it relates to the CFIA mandate, is strong, coherent, and science-based.
To this end, the CFIA, along with Health Canada, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and other government departments, participates in a key list of international organizations that includes the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the Office International des Épizooties, the International Plant Protection Convention, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and individual negotiations related to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
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