Federal government to spend less this year than last on food safety, budget officer says

OTTAWA — The Conservative government, under fire for its response to a massive beef recall and E. coli scare, is planning to spend tens of millions of dollars less this year on food safety programs at the Agriculture Department and Canadian Food Inspection Agency than last year, indicate new numbers from Parliament’s budget watchdog.

An analysis of expected federal spending released Wednesday by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer says approved budgetary expenditures on “food safety and biosecurity risk management systems” at the Agriculture Department are 27-per-cent lower in 2012-13 compared with the previous fiscal year, while planned “food safety program” funding is about five-per-cent less at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The approved expenditures include cash allocated from the main and supplementary spending estimates earlier this year. There is a possibility government could direct more funding to the programs later in the 2012-13 budget year.

The new PBO examination of budgetary expenditures by strategic outcome and program activity says planned spending for “food safety and biosecurity risk management systems” at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is projected to be reduced by almost $32 million, to approximately $85 million in 2012-13 from more than $116 million in 2011-12.

At the CFIA, planned federal spending on the “food safety program” is projected to shrink almost $16 million, to $315 million in 2012-13 from $331 million in 2011-12, according to the PBO analysis, which was released Wednesday with a report on the government’s first-quarter spending trends.

While total planned spending for the fiscal year is projected to decline, in both examples the actual first-quarter spending (April to June) on food safety and related measures increased over the previous year, up approximately $3 million (31 per cent) in the Agriculture Department and approximately $2 million (three per cent) at the CFIA, according to the budget officer.

The Harper government promised in the March federal budget an additional $51 million over two years to enhance food safety. Since it came to power in 2006, the Conservative government says it has provided funding for the CFIA to hire more than 700 new inspection staff, including 170 dedicated to meat inspection.

Officials with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada couldn’t immediately respond to the planned spending reductions, or their potential impacts on food safety programs.

However, the numbers identified by PBO only include approved spending estimates and “not what departments may receive throughout the remaining supplementary estimates process,” Agriculture Department spokesman George Bentley said in an email.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete & Jordan Press