Ottawa, July 5, 2005 The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
announced today that it will implement new monetary penalties to reinforce its
system of safeguards to prevent the spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
(BSE).
Through amendments to the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative
Monetary Penalties (AMPs) Regulations pursuant to the AMPS
ACT, CFIA
inspectors will be authorized to impose monetary penalties on operations which
violate elements of Canadas system of BSE safeguards. With these
changes, monetary penalties could be imposed for violations of two key
safeguards: the BSE
feed ban and requirements for the removal of specified risk material (SRM) from
food products for humans. This will complement the monetary penalties that are
already in place for failure to report suspected and actual cases of BSE.
Canada employs a comprehensive suite of internationally-recognized,
science-based measures to effectively minimize the likelihood of exposure,
amplification and spread of BSE within the cattle population
and to protect consumers from the associated human health risks, said
Andy Mitchell, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The ability to
issue monetary penalties will provide CFIA inspectors with an additional
enforcement tool to respond to violations of the safeguards in a more timely,
effective and efficient manner.
To date, enforcement tools available to the CFIA have been limited to warnings,
seizure of products suspected of or known to be out of compliance, suspension
or cancellation of permits, and prosecutions. The use of monetary penalties
presents numerous benefits as an enforcement tool:
it is more efficient and cost effective than enforcement options such as
prosecution;
it decriminalizes regulatory offences by emphasizing compliance rather than
punitive action;
it provides for more immediate enforcement and corrective action; and
it provides for the use of negotiated solutions to non-compliance for
commercial violations.
The purpose of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Monetary Penalties Act
is to enhance the enforcement options currently available in respect of
statutes administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as well as one
statute administered by Health Canada, the Pest Control Products Act. It is
currently applied to the Health of Animals Act, the Plant
Protection Act and the Pest Control Products Act.
The regulatory changes were published in the
Canada Gazette Part II (http://canadagazette.gc.ca) on June 29 and will
come into force on July 9, 2005.
The amendments can also be viewed at the CFIA website at
http://www.inspection.gc.ca (Acts and Regulations).
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For more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Whiting
Minister's Mitchell's office
(613) 759-1059
Media Relations
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
(613) 228-6682
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