Harper government unraveling many of the improvements made to the food safety system

from: www.FoodSafetyFirst.ca

The government revealed its plans for deep cuts to food inspection in Canada yesterday.

With these cuts, Ottawa is unraveling many of the improvements made to the food safety system since the tragic events of the 2008 Maple Leaf Foods listerisosis outbreak which cost 23 Canadians their lives. Consider:

•Ottawa will be firing as many as 100 food safety inspectors, more than it hired after it became painfully obvious that the inspector shortage contributed to the Maple Leaf disaster
•Funding for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is now tracking to less than it was before the listeriosis outbreak
• As unbelievable as it seems, the government is proposing that citizens take on the job of ensuring the accuracy of food product labels. Under this ridiculous proposal, you will have to “verify” complaints and then take them directly to the offending food company, not the CFIA
• Ottawa is also killing a program to approve meat product labels before they reach the marketplace, counting on inspectors to enforce accurate labels later while cutting the number of inspectors at the same time

Join thousands of other Canadians who are standing up to object to these foolish and dangerous decisions.

Please send a message to your MP right now.

Your MP is at home right now because Parliament is not sitting, perhaps sitting down for a family meal.

This is a perfect opportunity to send a strong message objecting to these damaging cuts and demanding that Ottawa live up to its commitments and responsibility to ensure the food we eat is safe.