Canada-Shocking revealations on food safety.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency cannot be sure how many meat inspectors are stationed at plants across the country, according to an agency briefing note released to parliamentarians as they kick off their investigation into the state of food safety in the wake of the listeriosis outbreak.

The document didn’t sit well with members of the special parliamentary committee, who held their inaugural meeting on Wednesday probing last year’s deadly listeriosis outbreak traced back to a processing meat plant in Toronto operated by Maple Leaf Foods.

Malcolm Allen, an NDPMP, called the admission ``astounding.’’

"Any business can tell you how many people do specific jobs in their organization and I am astounded that the CFIA cannot tell Canadians how many people inspect our meat supply,’’ he said

``This is unacceptable."

The new admission comes despite assurances in the same document that the number of inspectors dedicated to meat inspection has risen every year for the last decade.

The CFIA cited a supporting chart showing the number of inspectors now tops 3,000, up from about 1,900 a decade ago. But this includes employees who don’t do meat inspections.

``Given that there are a number of inspector positions that are multi- purpose, in that they do not focus on one commodity, the CFIA’s current tracking and information systems do not allow us to accurately identify all inspection staff devoted to meat inspection,’’ the briefing note states.

``The CFIA is currently working on improving its data capture and information system to better monitor work being completed by inspectors.’’

The revelation also comes on the heels of testimony by a senior agency official on Tuesday, who told members of the Senate finance committee that the 58 food inspectors hired since last fall are not working as meat inspectors at plants.

When Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced these new positions last August after a definitive link was made between tainted meat produced at a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto and the deaths of Canadians, he said the new food inspectors would be ``on the front lines.’’

The CFIA’s vice-president of operations, Cameron Prince, testified on Tuesday the ``primary focus’’ of these new hires is the monitoring of imported foods.

Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, elected as a vice-chairman of the parliamentary food safety committee on Wednesday, said the CFIA backgrounder confirming the agency can’t say for sure how many staff are working at meat inspectors ``tells you the minister is pulling numbers from thin air.’’

``Yes, there may have been more people hired, but have there been more people hired on the front lines that are actually doing the inspections at meat plants?’’

Bob Kingston represents CFIA inspectors as the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s agriculture union. He said there are only about 200 ``multi-purpose inspectors,’’ and each one submits monthly expense claims coded to show the amount of time they devote to each commodity program. He suggested the CFIA is ``trying to hide’’ the real number by hiding behind this excuse.

Kingston estimates that the total number of food inspectors is less than 1, 200, excluding trainees and supervisors. Of these, he said about 200 are processed meat inspectors.

In a statement, the CFIA clarified its backgrounder prepared for parliamentarians.

``CFIA inspectors are highly qualified staff who can be assigned to inspect different food commodities as needed. This flexibility allows the CFIA to operate in a more responsive and effective manner and deploy inspection staff where needed. It also means that many CFIA inspectors are designated as `multi- commodity,’ which can include meat inspection.’’

It went on to say that an exact number can be challenging because ``changes in the meat industry, such as plant closings or expansion of production, can impact the number of CFIA inspectors needed to be dedicated to meat inspection at any given time across Canada.’’

The CFIA also clarified that its 3,030 inspectors includes those working in all areas of inspection under the CFIA’s mandate. The number of inspectors working in federally registered meat facilities is approximately 1,400, the agency said. And between March 2006 and March 2008, overall CFIA staff has increased by 13.7 per cent.

Wednesday’s committee meeting ended without any resolution on a timeline or scope of the investigation.

The Conservative MPs pushed for a fast turnaround, recommending a final report on a general probe into food safety to be completed by June. Allen, representing the New Democrats on the committee, pushed for a two-step process, beginning with a narrow investigation into the listeriosis outbreak during the spring session and a more general review of the state of food safety in the fall.

The meeting adjourned before members could vote on the competing proposals.

Separately, a spokesman said inspectors at ready-to-eat meat plants require last-minute training over the next week to make sure they’re ready to implement a new listeria environmental testing regime, scheduled to take effect on April 1.

The agency unveiled the tougher rules after reviewing testing protocols in the wake of last summer’s deadly listeriosis outbreak linked to the death of 21 Canadians.

The company found listeria building up ``deep inside’’ two slicing machines was the most likely source.