Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Changes: 16 Centres of Expertise Across Canada Will Be Created

This video presents “Suspect”:

This is a Federal Government commercial introducing the relatively new website Healthy Canadians wherein you can get the latest recalls and safety alerts

You may have noticed that there have been recent changes to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA’s) delivery and presentation of Public Advisories for food recalls on the CFIA website.

The last CFIA Public Advisory with the usual title “HEALTH HAZARD ALERT” followed by a subtitle identifying the specific food recalled and its possible causative agent of contamination was posted in December 2012:

Please click here to see an example

According to the saying “out with the old and in with the new”, uniformity and standardization of reporting food recalls have recently been replaced with new styles of reporting and presentation due to CFIA’s process of creating different Centres of Expertise for food inspection across Canada.

I believe these different Centres of Expertise will allow CFIA to be more attuned to the sensitivities and considerations of local food industry in each particular field as well as consumers in the corresponding region.

Presently, the Federal Government is in the process of making the following changes to CFIA:

“Creating sixteen targeted Centres of Expertise across Canada to provide industry and CFIA inspectors with better, more consistent access to information and advice
- Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz explained that:
  - “These Centres of Expertise will pool expertise and make it available through a single window, making the CFIA more efficient and giving industry, CFIA inspectors and Canadians better, more consistent service
  - In addition, locations will be near both academic and provincial experts in a particular field to leverage expertise and collaboration among organizations
  - The sixteen Centres …expected to be implemented over the next few years“

The Centres of Expertise will be located across Canada
- Several factors were considered when selecting these, including:
  - current concentration of related industries
  - proximity to industry organizations
  - proximity to provincial experts in that field
  - proximity to academic experts in that field
  - current concentration of staff involved in the related activity“

Here is a list of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s 16 Centres of Expertise across Canada:

Centre of Expertise	Location
Forestry	Burnaby, BC
Finfish	Burnaby, BC
Red Meat Slaughter	Calgary, AB
Foreign Animal Disease and Emergency Management	Calgary, AB
Grains & Oilseeds Seed Plants with Novel Traits Fertilizer	Saskatoon, SK
Agri-foods and Non-federally Registered Products	Guelph, ON
Import/Export of Animals	Guelph, ON
Horticulture	Guelph, ON
Labelling and Claims	National Capital Region
Animal Feed	National Capital Region
Poultry Slaughter	St-Hyacinthe, QC
Processed Meat and Poultry	St-Hyacinthe, QC
Domestic Animal Disease and Animal Welfare	St-Hyacinthe, QC
Shellfish	Moncton, NB
Aquatic Animal Health	Moncton, NB
Potatoes and Soil	Charlottetown, PEI

Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Canada

NEWS RELEASE

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Provides Industry with Better Access to Expert Advice

January 7, 2013, Saskatoon: Today, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will be creating sixteen targeted Centres of Expertise across Canada to provide industry and CFIA inspectors with better, more consistent access to information and advice.

“These Centres of Expertise will pool expertise and make it available through a single window, making the CFIA more efficient and giving industry, CFIA inspectors and Canadians better, more consistent service,” said Minister Ritz. “In addition, locations will be near both academic and provincial experts in a particular field to leverage expertise and collaboration among organizations.”

The sixteen Centres, expected to be implemented over the next few years, will consolidate and co-locate expertise for specific programs. Not only will this create a more efficient system for providing guidance and expert advice, it will also provide a stronger link between the people in the Agency who design policy and programs and the staff who deliver them.

This builds on the CFIA‘s efforts to improve how it interacts with stakeholders and ultimately improve industry’s understanding and compliance with federal regulations. In February 2012, the CFIA announced its Statement of Rights and Service and guides to inspection, and the establishment of the Complaints and Appeals Office.

The CFIA‘s efforts to improve communication with stakeholders and overall industry compliance was further enhanced with the recent passage of the Safe Food for Canadians Act which consolidated various Acts and will make regulations more consistent and clear.

The Centres will be located across Canada. Several factors were considered when selecting these, including:

current concentration of related industries
proximity to industry organizations
proximity to provincial experts in that field
proximity to academic experts in that field
current concentration of staff involved in the related activity

The Centres will be as follows:

Centre of Expertise	Location
Forestry	Burnaby, BC
Finfish	Burnaby, BC
Red Meat Slaughter	Calgary, AB
Foreign Animal Disease and Emergency Management	Calgary, AB
Grains & Oilseeds Seed Plants with Novel Traits Fertilizer	Saskatoon, SK
Agri-foods and Non-federally Registered Products	Guelph, ON
Import/Export of Animals	Guelph, ON
Horticulture	Guelph, ON
Labelling and Claims	National Capital Region
Animal Feed	National Capital Region
Poultry Slaughter	St-Hyacinthe, QC
Processed Meat and Poultry	St-Hyacinthe, QC
Domestic Animal Disease and Animal Welfare	St-Hyacinthe, QC
Shellfish	Moncton, NB
Aquatic Animal Health	Moncton, NB
Potatoes and Soil	Charlottetown, PEI

The following text is in French:

COMMUNIQUÉ ACTUALITÉS

l’Agence Canadienne d’inspection des aliments (ACIA), Canada

L’Agence canadienne d’inspection des aliments offre à l’industrie un meilleur accès à des conseils d’experts

Le 7 janvier 2013, Saskatoon : Aujourd’hui, le ministre de l’Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, a annoncé que l’Agence canadienne d’inspection des aliments (ACIA) créera seize centres d’expertise ciblés un peu partout au Canada pour que l’industrie et les inspecteurs de l’ACIA aient accès plus facilement à des renseignements et des conseils plus uniformes.

« Ces centres regrouperont l’expertise et la rendront disponible grâce à un guichet unique, ce qui rendra l’ACIA plus efficace et permettra à l’industrie, les inspecteurs de l’ACIA, ainsi qu’aux Canadiens d’obtenir des services améliorés et plus uniformes, » mentionne le Ministre. « De plus, ces centres se trouveront à proximité d’experts de la province et du milieu universitaire dans un domaine particulier pour que l’Agence mise sur l’expertise et la collaboration entre les organisations ».

Les seize centres, qui devraient être mis en œuvre au cours des prochaines années, regrouperont dans un même endroit des experts de programmes particuliers. Ce projet créera non seulement un système plus efficace pour la prestation de conseils et de directives d’experts, mais renforcera aussi le lien entre les employés de l’Agence qui conçoivent les programmes et les politiques et les employés qui les exécutent.

Cette initiative s’appuie sur les efforts que l’ACIA déploie pour améliorer sa relation avec les intervenants et pour accroître en définitive la compréhension et la conformité de l’industrie en ce qui a trait aux règlements fédéraux. En février 2012, l’ACIA a présenté son Énoncé des droits et des services ainsi que ses guides sur l’inspection et a annoncé la création du Bureau de traitement des plaintes et des appels.

Les mesures prises par l’ACIA pour améliorer la communication avec les intervenants et pour renforcer la conformité de l’industrie en général ont été renforcées par la récente adoption de la Loi sur la salubrité des aliments au Canada, qui regroupe diverses lois et qui uniformisera et clarifiera les règlements qui s’y rattachent.

Les centres se situeront un peu partout au Canada. Plusieurs facteurs ont été pris en compte au moment de la sélection de ces endroits, notamment les suivantes :

concentration actuelle d’industries connexes;
proximité d’organisations de l’industrie;
proximité d’experts de la province dans le domaine;
proximité d’experts du milieu universitaire dans le domaine;
concentration actuelle d’employés prenant part à l’activité visée.

Les centres seront les suivants :

Centre d’expertise	Lieu
Produits forestiers	Burnaby (Colombie-Britannique)
Poissons	Burnaby (Colombie-Britannique)
Abattage d’animaux à viande rouge	Calgary (Alberta)
Gestion des maladies animales exotiques et des mesures d’urgence	Calgary (Alberta)
Céréales et oléagineux Semences Végétaux à caractères nouveaux Engrais	Saskatoon (Saskatchewan)
Produits agroalimentaires et produits fabriqués dans des établissements non agréés par le gouvernement fédéral	Guelph (Ontario)
Importation et exportation d’animaux	Guelph (Ontario)
Produits horticoles	Guelph (Ontario)
Étiquetage et allégations	Région de la capitale nationale (RCN)
Aliments du bétail	Région de la capitale nationale (RCN)
Abattage de la volaille	Saint-Hyacinthe (Québec)
Viande et volaille transformées	Saint-Hyacinthe (Québec)
Maladies animales indigènes et bien-être des animaux	Saint-Hyacinthe (Québec)
Mollusques et crustacés	Moncton (Nouveau-Brunswick)
Santé des animaux aquatiques	Moncton (Nouveau-Brunswick)
Pommes de terre et sol	Charlottetown (Île-du-Prince-Édouard)