Harper Government Improves Service Delivery for Consumers, Producers and all Businesses

OTTAWA, February 27, 2012: Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced today that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has launched a Statement of Rights and Service for Producers, Consumers and Other Stakeholders and six guides to inspection.  The statement and guides will give consumers, producers and businesses an important tool in their interactions with the CFIA by outlining what the CFIA does, its service standards and what the sector can expect when dealing with the CFIA.

“The CFIA plays a vital role in keeping our food safe and our agriculture industry in a position to drive our economy and we know there is always room to improve,” said Minister Ritz. “We’re taking steps to strengthen communication and interaction between the Agency, consumers, producers, and the entire value chain so that we can all better work together to ensure safe food and a strong agriculture industry.”

Minister Ritz also announced the CFIA’s new Complaints and Appeals mechanism, which will provide businesses with a more transparent and accessible way to register complaints and appeals.

“This new mechanism complements CFIA processes already in place—by using a “single window” approach, it will provide a more transparent and accessible way for businesses to register complaints and appeals on CFIA’s decisions and service quality,” said Minister Ritz. “The statement, guides and complaints mechanism build a stronger foundation from which the CFIA, consumers, producers and all businesses can work together to improve Canada’s food, plant and animal safety.”

Six guides to inspection—designed for consumers, producers, processors, animal transporters, importers and exporters have been developed to accompany the statement. The guides outline CFIA’s roles and responsibilities and what businesses can expect when interacting with the CFIA. These new tools have been developed in partnership with the sector, including the Canadian Federation of Independent Business who played a leading role in making sure these documents help businesses better understand their own role and responsibilities as well as what service standards they should expect from CFIA.

The statement and guides also reference the CFIA’s expectations of regulated parties as outlined in its brochure entitled The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Its Regulated Parties, Stakeholders and Partners: An Ethical Relationship.

The Statement of Rights and Service and guides to inspection are available on the CFIA website.

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For information:

Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Media relations: 613-773-6600