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Government backs off claim meat plant inspectors spend half time on site |
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Written by Jim Brown, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 |
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OTTAWA - The federal government is backing away from previous assurances that its health inspectors spend at least half their time doing on-site physical inspections at meat processing plants across the country.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made the claim this week, in the face of a deadly listeriosis outbreak linked to a Maple Leaf Foods processing plant in Toronto.
But under a deluge of criticism from the meat inspectors union, federal officials now say there's a difference between the "design" of the inspection system and the daily reality of its operation.
The about-face came after Bob Kingston, president of the agricultural employees wing of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, issued a statement Thursday accusing Ritz of misleading the public.
Kingston called it "pure fiction" to claim that inspectors spend only half their time on paperwork under a new system introduced in March. The union claims the system, brought in by the Conservative government, has turned inspectors into paper-pushers who don't spend enough time on first-hand monitoring of conditions on the plant floor.
Confronted with Kingston's claims, Ritz declined comment and handed the matter off to bureaucrats from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Paul Mayers, a CFIA official, told an Ottawa news conference the new system was designed with the goal of a 50-50 split between hands-on work and paperwork, but acknowledged the practical reality is more complicated.
"It is intended to be divided equally, as the minister noted," said Mayers. "We recognize that, from one day to the next, the absolute amount of time on a particular task may not be exactly equal."
Mayers later phoned The Canadian Press to further nuance his remarks, saying the real measure of the new system is its "outcomes" - whether the inspectors can perform all the tasks they need to carry out.
He insisted there was no contradiction between his explanation Thursday and Ritz's remarks 24 hours earlier.
Ritz, responding to critics on Wednesday, had categorically rejected claims that inspectors weren't speeding enough time on the production floor.
"We are saying that's not true," he declared. "About 50 per cent of an inspector's time is spent on the floor of the plant, the other 50 per cent is overseeing paperwork, most of it scientific in nature."
Federal officials also maintain that the Maple Leaf plant at the heart of the listeriosis outbreak was subject to daily inspections because of its size.
But Kingston challenged that, saying size has nothing to do with how inspectors budget their time.
The one inspector responsible for Maple Leaf was also responsible for six other facilities - two meat processing plants and four cold storage operations.
That meant he would often make the rounds and bring the paperwork from the other sites back to his base plant, which happened to be Maple Leaf, said Kingston.
"So, yeah, they spend a lot of time there, but not on the plant floor . . . He doesn't even spend all his time at that (Maple Leaf) plant dealing with that plant."
Instead, said Kingston, the inspector was often in his office sifting through the documentation from the other half-dozen facilities he had to keep tabs on.
Kingston said that, after Ritz's claim of a 50-50 split, he was flooded with calls from inspectors across the country challenging the minister's assertion.
Nearly all the 40 inspectors who phoned estimated they spent about 25 per cent of their time in plant-floor work and 75 per cent on paperwork, said the union official.
A number of inspectors are "champing at the bit" to speak out publicly about their personal experiences, said Kingston, but "every one of them is afraid of being fired if they do."
He acknowledged, when pressed, that nobody has been directly threatened. "It's just the climate of the day," he said, noting that CFIA has told its employees all comment on the matter must come through agency headquarters in Ottawa.
There was also disagreement Thursday about whether inspectors apply higher safety standards to meat destined for export to the United States than they do to products sold in Canada.
Mayers said the Maple Leaf plant was certified for export production, even though all the products being turned out at time of the listeriosis outbreak were intended for domestic sale.
The bottom line, says CFIA, is that all the production at the plant is held to the same standard, no matter where the products are sold.
Kingston agreed that's the case, but said it's a different story at some other processing plants, where products destined for Canada don't have to meet U.S. regulatory requirements like pasteurization.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 August 2008 )
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