Page 77 - DMGT407Corporate and Business Laws

Corporate and Business Laws

Notes
(b) Canadian producers/processors were vulnerable to trade challenges in a
fragmented system.
(c) Gaps resulting from non-inspection or non-rigorous inspection were perceived
by processors as a weak link, despite the small percentage of overall production
represented and assurances outlined in the Auditor General of Canada’s 1994
Report.
(d) Closer integration of the US and Canadian markets under free trade agreements
made the industry anxious to reduce the costs and inefficiencies resulting
from differing provincial standards e.g. fluid milk.
5. The “national treatment” principle in the North American Free Trade Agreement
could be interpreted to mean that imports must meet the provincial standard of the
province they enter rather than the standard required for inter-provincial or
international trade. This could drag down Canadian food standards to the lowest
common denominator.
(a) Canadian exporters were concerned about being denied access to external
markets on the grounds that Canadian food safety standards and inspection
systems were not equivalent to those of the markets into which they were
shipping.
(b) The 1994 SPS Agreement required that countries use their food safety and
animal, plant and health regulations only to the extent necessary to protect
human, animal life or health, not for trade protection purposes.
6. Emergence of alternatives to high-cost prescriptive regulation: New scientific and
technological tools furnished the Government with opportunities to shift additional
costs and a significant degree of responsibility for food safety to the food industry
itself. Risk assessment methods allowed the allocation of food inspection resources
on a risk basis. One such risk-based tool, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
(HACCP) system, developed for the US space program, was deemed more effective
than existing systems in ensuring food safety. Canada was the first government to
adopt this system, for its fish inspection program. It was so well accepted
internationally that Canadian meat packing plants were subsequently required to
conform to US regulations requiring large American meat packing plants to
implement a HACCP plan by January 1998.

7. National unity was threatened, and solutions suggested in the winning Liberal
platforms in the 1993 and 1997 elections were renewal of the federation, including
better coordination of services and reduction in overlap and duplication among
governments.
The Government of Canada consolidated all of its food inspection and quarantine
services from Health Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, and Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada into one self-standing Agency effective April 1, 1997. The Agency reports
not to a deputy minister but directly to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
The Agency has separate employer status, and so can hire and fire its own employees,
rather than working through the Public Service Commission. It also has a number
of financial flexibilities not available to government departments, most notably the
capacity to retain revenues.
Protecting the public interest is a major concern in creating alternate Service Delivery
Agencies (ASDs) in Canada. Employing the Auditor General of Canada’s definition
Contd...

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