Guelph MP Frank Valeriote has apparently been thwarted in his bid to have prominent figures testify about Canada’s massive beef recall before a parliamentary committee.
Valeriote, the vice-chair of the Agriculture and Agri-food standing committee, gave notice last week for a motion that went apparently nowhere.
“Canadians need answers about where our food safety system went wrong and independent confirmation that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has the appropriate resources it needs to conduct inspection and protect our food supply,” Valeriote said in a news release last Friday.
“You’ll note, however, that my motion was on notice but no longer is,” he pointed out in the release, noting that he was bound by rules governing in camera meetings from disclosing publicly what happened to his motion. “I cannot comment on what occurred while a committee meeting was being held in camera – or in private,” he added in the release. “But the Conservative government has a majority on that committee, so I’ll leave it to you to deduce what happened.”
Valeriote’s motion related to the recent massive recall of beef products from the XL Foods slaughterhouse in Brooks, Alta.
It asked that the standing committee hear testimony from witnesses on the subject of food safety and specifically on the “recent release and export of E. coli contaminated meat” from the XL Foods facility.
He said he was seeking the testimony “in order to identify where the problems arose and what measures are necessary to prevent future threats to the Canadian food supply, Canadian trade, and Canadian producers and consumers.”
His motion asked that the witness list include Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz and Richard Arsenault, director of the meat inspection program of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. He also wanted to hear from representatives of XL Foods and several others.
When the Conservative government unveiled its omnibus budget bill in the spring, Valeriote publicly expressed concern about proposed cuts to Canada’s food-inspection service.
He said the budget proposed $56 million in cuts over three years to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.  This would result in lost jobs in Guelph, which has one of the agency’s main offices at 1 Stone Rd., he said. As well as lost jobs, the cuts to the agency’s funding are “a threat to our food safety,” Valeriote said at the time.