Tag Archives: CFIA

Roundup: The clawback climbdown

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At 4:26 pm on the Friday before a long weekend, it was time for the government to release something they wanted buried – in this case, backing down on some of the changes to the EI Working While On Claim programme. The government will now allow some claimants to return to the old system that didn’t claw back as much for low-income earners. That said, it’s a temporary short-term fix that won’t do much in the long term for those claimants.

Here’s a bit of perspective on the “largest beef recall in Canadian history.”

Uh oh – it looks like the government is set to miss its deficit reduction targets for last year.

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Roundup: Serving Christian prisoners only

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I expect tainted meat is going to get pushed off of the agenda today as news broke last night that the government is firing all non-Christian chaplains, in what is a clear violation of the Charter. Given the way they’re patting themselves on the back over their Office of Religious Freedoms, well, expect them to be hoisted on their own petards in QP today.

Speaking of tainted meat, Thomas Mulcair rather predictably called for Gerry Ritz’s resignation yesterday. XL Foods, meanwhile, has finally broken their silence and taken full responsibility for the outbreak.

Also not surprising, the NDP officially declared their opposition to the Nexen deal yesterday.

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QP: Absent Harper, enter Ritz

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While Stephen Harper had a conveniently-timed press engagement with the President of Tanzania, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was indeed back in the Commons today, and Thomas Mulcair started right out by reading out a short question about whether Ritz is responsible for the system of self-regulation that got into this mess. Ritz didn’t take the bait and explained that self-regulation doesn’t exist in Canada, that CFIA is always involved and uses the CVS or “Compliance Verification System” that was brought in under the Liberals in 2005. Mulcair then asked three more questions to hammer away at Ritz’s credibility before in his fifth and final question, he demanded Ritz’s resignation. Ritz again, didn’t take the bait. Bob Rae was then up and asked detailed questions based on the timeline provided by CFIA, regarding delays and actions on which dates, to which Ritz kept assuring him that they were working based on evidence, and so on.

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Roundup: The missing meat inspectors

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CFIA says that XL Foods didn’t follow some safety procedures – and then the press conference suffered a meltdown as the minister’s staff shut the whole thing down and offered “one-on-ones” instead – err, except there were some forty reporters in the room. Add to that, during caucus outs, Thomas Mulcair was quoting CFIA cuts in the past tense – err, except that they’re booked for the next two fiscal years and haven’t happened yet. Oops. Meanwhile, the union representing meat inspectors says they can’t find the “700 net new inspectors,” since that figure relates to classification levels, and not job descriptions. In fact, 200 of those “inspectors” are people hired to deal with invasive species of plants.

John Baird is calling for calm after mortar shells were exchanged over the Syria-Turkey border yesterday. Remember that Turkey is a NATO ally, which could bring us into that conflict.

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QP: The missing minister

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It could have been a rerun of yesterday, given the entirety of the leader’s found in QP. Thomas Mulcair once again began by reading out questions on the tainted meat “disaster,” and why store owners were acting responsibly but the Minister was not there to answer questions in the House. (He was over at the meat plant in question, and had a spectacular melt down of a press conference earlier in the day). Stephen Harper again responded that CFIA was the responsible authority and that they were containing the situation. Malcolm Allen bellowed outrage at the minister’s absence, and Pierre Lemieux (who is a much better communicator than his minister any day of the week, it should be noted), reassured him that CFIA was one of the top-rated food safety agencies in the world. Bob Rae asked why the head of CFIA said that he didn’t know the numbers yet for the new inspection standards, but Harper told him that it was not something to be determined by politicians, but rather by CFIA itself.

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Roundup: Unleash the Trudeau campaign!

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So, Justin Trudeau is officially in the race, and he announced on his late brother’s birthday. And since we had six days of swooning leading up to the announcement, I expect six months of snark to follow. Aaron Wherry liveblogged the night’s events here.

Stephen Harper has announced that Justice Richard Wagner is his nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

In an interesting interview yesterday, Maher Arar says that he identifies with Omar Khadr and the treatment he was subjected to in Guantanamo Bay, feels that the confession and guilty plea was likely false given the psychological torture and the fact that someone in that situation would sign anything for a shred of hope of getting out, and he is willing to talk to him about his situation.

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QP: Not holding the minister responsible

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With Stephen Harper back in the House, Thomas Mulcair made another attempt at getting answers about the tainted meat issue playing out in Alberta. As he read out his questions on the impact of CFIA budget cuts and whether the government understood the concept of ministerial responsibility, Harper responded by assuring him that food safety was their first priority, that they’d hired new inspectors, and that there was new legislation on the way. Malcolm Allen accused the government of “not connecting the dots” between cuts and the outbreak, but Pierre Lemieux assured him of the new inspectors and funding. Bob Rae noted that the government treated consumers as the first priority but made them the last to know, and he wondered when Harper became aware of the outbreak. Harper told him that responsibility was vested in CFIA, and they found out on September 4th.

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QP: Scripting the tainted meat debate

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It being a Monday, Harper and half of the government front bench were absent from the House, leaving Thomas Mulcair to read his questions on tainted meat to the back-up PM du jour Peter MacKay, who in turn read back some fairly bland statements about how the minister was holding CFIA officials accountable. When Malcolm Allen asked about the self-regulation of food inspection, Pierre Lemieux pointed out that Allen made a bunch of since disproven claims last week. Bob Rae then got up and wanted to know when the Minister was informed and why it took two weeks to inform Canadians, but MacKay just repeated his assigned talking points.

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QP: In the best interests of Canada

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After yesterday’s insanity, the House was still a bit raucous for QP, even with Harper gone. Thomas Mulcair read off a trio of questions about the Nexen takeover, for which James Moore – the back-up Prime Minister du jour – recited that while they haven’t made a decision yet, all decisions they do take are in the best interests of Canada. Well, that’s a relief. Malcolm Allen asked about another beef recall and four cases of E. Coli in Edmonton, to which Gerry Ritz told him that it was two separate incidents that he was confusing. Bob Rae was up next, and hammered away at the question of the food recalls, and reminded the House that members of the Ontario cabinet responsible for Walkerton were now sitting in the Federal cabinet. Amidst the clamour on the government benches protesting this, James Moore first responded with a bland statement that said nothing, before Ritz replied to the two follow-ups, praising the procedures that “bracketed” the contaminated product and ensured it was pulled. Err, except for those four cases, one assumes.

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QP: Variations on EI questions and non-answers

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It being a Wednesday, the Commons was a pretty packed chamber, and MPs were riled up from their morning caucus meetings. Thomas Mulcair took advantage of this frisson in the air to read a series of questions listing off Canada’s mediocre economic performance – trade deficit, billions of dollars in “dead money,” tax cuts for businesses not reinvesting it, and so on – and wondering why Harper wasn’t listening to Canadians about the economy. Harper acknowledged that there were great challenges facing the economy, but jobs, exports and growth were up. Peggy Nash brought up the Nexen deal and wondered why they weren’t paying attention to the hollowing out of the resources sector or the concerns of Canadian entrepreneurs. Christian Paradis reassured her about the Investment Canada Act’s criteria, and that those entrepreneurs don’t want a carbon tax either. Joyce Murray was up for the Liberals, and she brought up the Conservatives’ unwillingness to hand over to the Parliamentary Budget Officer data on cuts, to which Tony Clement assured her that they are accountable to Parliament by the regular channels. For her last question, Murray asked about what percentage of foreign ownership of the oil sands the government would allow, not that she got an actual answer from Paradis.

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