PACP Committee News Release
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Standing Committee on Public Accounts |
HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6 |
Comité permanent des comptes publics |
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
Invasive plants and pests can impact on the economy of entire communities
Ottawa, June 19, 2009 -
Invasive plants and pests could have significant impacts on the Canadian environment and economy, and the government needs to devote more attention to its plant protection programs, according to a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented in the House of Commons today by Chair Shawn Murphy, MP.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) oversees the importation of plants into Canada through import permits and inspections at Canadian borders. “There is a general consensus that it costs less to deal with invasive plants and pests before they become established, so inspections and border controls are important” said Committee Chair Shawn Murphy.
An audit by the Office of the Auditor General found that found a number of weaknesses in the CFIA’s capacity to detect invasive species entering Canada. In one instance, the Auditor General found that the CFIA inspected only 50% of a sample of packages which were supposed to be subject to a 100% inspection rate. The audit also found that the plant protection programs were not adequately supported by information management and technology. Many of the procedures for importing plants are paper based, resulting in the need for thousands of faxes sent internally across the CFIA.
While the audit found no threats to human health, the risks posed to the economy are significant. Forest and agricultural production in Canada were valued at approximately $100 billion in 2005.
The Public Accounts Committee expressed concern that many of the weaknesses documented in the audit are not new, having been raised in previous audits. “The CFIA needs ongoing funding for the plant protection programs, and must remain focussed on solving the problems identified in the audit” said Mr. Murphy.
In order to ensure that the CFIA modernizes its approach to plant protection, the Committee recommended that the CFIA develop a detailed action plan for how it intends to address the issues raised by the audit, and provide the Committee with an annual status report until the Auditor General’s recommendations are fully implemented.
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