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| About the CFIA > Reporting to Parliament > Annual Report > Annual Report 2001 - 2002 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF OUR RESULTSIn 2001-02, the CFIA continued to deliver programs and services aimed at enhancing the safety of Canada's food system and protecting the health of Canada's plants and animals. The CFIA conducted its regulatory activities in the context of growing and increasingly complex challenges on the domestic and international fronts that are the result of increased emphasis on emergency preparedness and border security. Add to this rising public expectations, increased trade and product diversity, significant technological advances, far-reaching policy initiatives, and a number of emergencies related to food safety and animal and plant health, CFIA employees found themselves in a fast-paced and demanding work environment. The Agency administers and/or enforces federal statutes that address all stages of the food continuum. The CFIA inspects not only foods, but also the seed, livestock feed, fertilizers, plants, and animals on which a safe food supply depends. As Canada's largest science-based regulatory agency, the CFIA relies on science as the basis of its program design and delivery and as a tool to deal with emerging issues such as biotechnology and the increased threat of bioterrorism. On the international stage, the CFIA provides leadership in the development of a science-based international regulatory framework aimed at providing consumers with safe, high-quality food products. The growing demand for its services has required the CFIA to deploy its resources over an expanding regulatory landscape. The Agency has focussed its efforts on delivering its regulatory mandate and at the same time has responded to a number of emergencies that have required undivided attention. This Annual Report highlights performance information in the following areas: Food SafetyThe CFIA's top priority is food safety. The CFIA shares responsibility for food safety with producers, processors, distributors, retail outlets, and consumers, as well as with other government organizations and jurisdictions. As an agency responsible for enforcement of federal legislation, the CFIA uses data on compliance rates and other quantitative and qualitative information to measure its success in achieving the objectives of the Government of Canada. Overall, high compliance rates for health and safety requirements were achieved in the federally registered fish, fresh and processed fruit and vegetable, meat, dairy, and egg sectors. When products were found to be out of compliance, the CFIA took action, such as seizure or recall, or, when necessary, initiated legal action, such as the imposition of penalties and fines. |
The CFIA promoted industry's adoption of science-based food-safety practices. An increasing number of Canadian food establishments have incorporated Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles into their operations. CFIA staff carried out inspection activities aimed at improving labelling and consumer information. Work in this area helped protect consumers from improper product grading, unacceptable product quality, and violations of federal packaging and labelling laws.
The CFIA protects Canadian livestock from foreign animal diseases and regulated animal diseases that can occur in Canada. Through the CFIA's detection, control, and eradication activities and its strict import controls, the Agency played a significant role in helping Canada remain free of all Office International des Épizooties (OIE) List A diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease, which reached epidemic proportions in other parts of the world last year, most notably in the United Kingdom. In addition, CFIA staff helped Canada remain free of many of the List B diseases that must be reported to the OIE. Internationally there is consensus that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is a significant List B disease. BSE has not been detected in Canada since 1993 when a single case was reported in an imported cow. Nevertheless, the CFIA continued to be vigilant with an active and intensified control program.
The Agency's quarantine and disease control efforts continued to work toward eradicating diseases, such as chronic wasting disease, scrapie, and tuberculosis. In support of Canada's agricultural export trade, CFIA staff continued to certify Canadian animals and animal products as meeting importing countries' requirements.
The CFIA protects Canada's plant resource base from foreign pests and controls the serious pest infestations already present in Canada. CFIA surveillance at international border points confirmed that plants and plant products were in compliance with federal regulations. Within Canada, the Agency worked to control the spread of plant diseases, for example the outbreaks of plum pox virus and a severe infestation of brown spruce longhorn beetle. The CFIA also provided third-party regulatory oversight of the Canadian Seed Institute, and high compliance rates were achieved for pedigreed seed, non-pedigreed seed, and imported seed alike. The CFIA continues to play an important role in regulating the introduction of plants with novel traits as well as to help assure Canadian exporters that shipments of Canadian seed, plant, and forestry products meet foreign country phytosanitary export requirements.
As the role of the CFIA expanded on both national and international fronts, its workforce also grew to respond to the largely science-based needs of the organization.
Maintaining a qualified workforce remained a priority that was addressed through the delivery of progressive training and development programs and targeted succession planning to prepare for the future. Agency partnerships with Canadian universities continued to encourage sharing of research expertise and development of future graduate talent. The Agency refined its recruitment and retention analysis and focussed its strategy on those occupational groups with critical scientific and technical expertise. In response, strategic national and international recruitment initiatives were undertaken which resulted in attracting the necessary expertise to the organization. The CFIA took steps to foster positive employer-employee relations and good working conditions and continued to promote a diverse and representative workforce.
Despite increasing demands and pressures, the CFIA's achievements continued to be diverse and far-reaching. The sum of the CFIA's work contributed to the quality of life of Canadians, to a safe food supply, and to the health of Canada's animal and plant resources. The CFIA's work also helped to foster Canada's international reputation as having a world class food-safety and quarantine system.
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