Archived - 2020 to 2021 Departmental Results Report

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From the Minister

As the Minister of Health, I am pleased to present the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) Departmental Results Report for 2020 to 2021.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic situation that gripped Canada in early 2020, the CFIA continued to adapt to evolving circumstances to deliver critical inspection and other services in an effort to support the resiliency of the agriculture and agri-food sector and preventing the introduction of food safety risks, pests, diseases and invasive species to plant and animal resources, while contributing to consumer protection and food security by securing market access opportunities for domestic and international trade.

I am happy to report that the Government of Canada is supporting CFIA's vital work through funding in Budget 2021, which allowed for investments in:

• continuing support for critical food inspection: $20 million in 2021 to 2022 for CFIA to retain inspectors hired in food processing facilities while the COVID-19 pandemic persists
• maintaining daily shift inspections: $33 million over 2 years, starting in 2021 to 2022, for CFIA to maintain daily shift inspections of meat processing plants to allow Canadian meat processors to continue to export meat to the United States and build consumer confidence in the Canadian meat sector
• improving food safety: $31 million over 2 years, starting in 2021 to 2022, to retain staff that enable the CFIA to enhance food safety by improving risk and intelligence oversight, conducting offshore preventive activities, and promoting stakeholder compliance; $162.6 million over the next 5 years and $40 million per year on an ongoing basis to maintain the integrity of Canada's food safety system, protect the health of plants and animals to safeguard the food supply, and provide ongoing support to Canadian businesses in their export and import activities to overcome pandemic interruptions and global trade
• addressing antimicrobial resistance: $28.6 million over 5 years, starting in 2021 to 2022, with $5.7 million per year ongoing, to the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and CFIA to help address antimicrobial resistance.
  • investments would support efforts to prevent the inappropriate use of antimicrobials and expand efforts to monitor new antimicrobial resistance in Canada.

Recent research shows that 78% of Canadians are confident in the safety of Canada's food supply and 76% of Canadians believe that CFIA is doing a good job at verifying that the food sold in Canada is safe. In addition to supporting a safe and stable food supply, CFIA made progress in several priority areas, including but not limited to: advancing food product innovation (formerly food labelling modernization); initiating the development of the Canadian Plant Health Information System (a CFIA-led initiative that will strengthen communication and support evidence-based decision-making among Canadian plant health authorities); implementing humane transport regulatory changes; securing Canada's negligible risk status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (a reportable animal disease) by the World Organisation for Animal Health; supporting the international trade of food products and live animals digitally by using the CFIA's online Digital Service Delivery Platform; and, combatting food fraud.

A key accomplishment was securing Canada's negligible risk status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, a reportable animal disease) from the World Organisation for Animal Health after many years. This upgraded status has been eagerly awaited by industry stakeholders. By achieving and maintaining negligible risk status for BSE, Canada enhances its negotiation position in efforts to gain access to additional export markets for Canadian cattle, beef and beef products among countries that require products to originate from countries with negligible BSE risk status. The Government of Canada continues its work with the cattle and beef industry to explore market access opportunities.

To learn more about the work of CFIA, I invite everyone to read the Departmental Results Report for 2020 to 2021. I also want to thank CFIA's employees, who continue to go above and beyond to serve Canadians.

The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, PC, MP
Minister of Health

Results at a glance

Science is the driving force behind CFIA's mandate to:

• safeguard Canada's food supply to enhance the health and well-being of Canada's people;
• protect Canada's plant and animal resources from pests and diseases; and
• facilitate the international trade of food, plants, animals and related products.

CFIA's work enhances the health of Canadians, the environment and our economy.

CFIA at a glance

Description for image: CFIA at a glance

CFIA at a glance is a map of Canada highlighting some of the significant results related to CFIA's operations for 2020 to 2021. From top to bottom, left to right, the results provided are:

• $1.1 million inspections completed for plant, food and animal
• 6,168 Full-time equivalents (FTEs) across Canada
• 8,082 electronic export certificates issued
• 76 market access issues resolved for exports of Canadian products
• $74 billion in agricultural exports
• 13 laboratories across Canada
• 223 food recall warnings and allergy alerts

CFIA's key results achieved in 2020 to 2021

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA achieved the following:

• conducted and published the results of fish species substitution surveillance; detecting and tackling fish fraud supports the ongoing work to fulfill the Minister of Health's mandate commitment to develop a boat-to-plate traceability program for fish products in Canada
• developed new non-invasive diagnostic tests for African swine fever (ASF) detection that reduce the need to handle pigs, as well as a highly sensitive and specific portable diagnostic tests that allow the rapid detection of ASF on site to help control the disease if an outbreak occurs
• the modernized Fertilizers Regulations coming into force, which provide more flexibility to industry through a risk-based approach that focuses on product safety and environmental protection; the changes were welcomed by stakeholders as they represent the culmination of almost ten years of collaborative consultative effort
• certified 8,082 exports of food and live animals using digital tools within the new Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP), furthering the commitment of the Government of Canada to provide services online
• awarded funds to Canadian small businesses through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program, to help create needed innovations that help improve food safety and plant health in Canada (for example, instruments that can be used to detect foodborne pathogenic bacteria, phytosanitary treatments to control quarantine plant pests and devices to detect marine biotoxins in shellfish).
• established a procedure which streamlines the application, review and issuance of Ministerial Exemptions for inter-provincial movement of provincially inspected meat, which can be applied to other provincially-inspected foods upon demand if other circumstances lead to food shortages in the future

Gender-based analysis plus and CFIA

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) serves as an analytical tool to assess the impacts of policies, legislation, programs, services and other initiatives pertaining to diverse groups. CFIA works with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to support GBA Plus assessments when mitigating the health risks associated with specific foods for children, pregnant women, older adults and other populations. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA continued to deliver GBA Plus training to its employees and integrated it into key functional areas, completed a data scan and accompanying strategy to improve support for diverse groups of clients and businesses, and enhanced its client service with more customized approaches and improved internal coordination. GBA Plus was also used to help shape CFIA's food fraud work to determine which consumers, such as lower-income shoppers and vulnerable populations as well as those with diet-related health diseases or allergies, or which consumer habits such as shopping based on social values like conservation or the environment, are most impacted by food fraud. GBA Plus data will be collected through public opinion research in 2021 to 2022 and will be available in 2022. This data will help identify issues, challenges and opportunities that exist, and the information can be used to improve CFIA policies and programs for GBA Plus audiences.

Open and transparent government

In support of open government, CFIA promotes transparency by tracking, assessing and prioritizing the its data and datasets for release to the public within the Data Asset Inventory system, made available to all CFIA staff. The open government process and system has been enhanced to identify and publish datasets to the public more efficiently and effectively including: low-risk datasets that can be published quicker, and high value datasets such as those behind the Departmental Plan Results.

This allows CFIA to make its data more accessible to the public by posting more free, machine-readable and simple-to-use datasets to the Government of Canada's open data portal and by providing additional services via MyCFIA platform. CFIA increased their open data presence on the open government portal, by improving their data Management and open government processes and working closely with data stewards throughout CFIA, moving their dataset publishing status to 24th among all departments and agencies. Transparency initiatives help Canadians to make more informed decisions about food, animal and plant.

CFIA's response to COVID-19

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA continued to deliver on its mandate while abiding by public health guidance issued by federal, provincial and municipal health authorities. CFIA took steps to safeguard the health and safety of its personnel by: identifying alternate work arrangements whenever possible that sought to reduce on site presence at CFIA offices once IT and network capacities were increased; heightened vigilance of measures and protocols for those working in federal food establishments and regulated parties' premises; and, identifying new ways to carry out regulatory activities by incorporating innovative new tools (such as the drone pilot and virtual inspections).

On March 23, 2020, CFIA launched its business continuity plan to introduce a temporary suspension of low-risk activities. This allowed CFIA to maintain food, animal and plant health safety by temporarily shifting available resources to higher risk or more critically important activities and the delivery of essential services. CFIA was able to continue to protect the health and safety of its staff while refocusing its efforts in areas of higher risk and toward activities that are critical to the safety of food, plant and animal health. During this time, CFIA continued to prioritize: food safety investigations and recalls; animal disease investigations; domestic and import inspection services; export certification activities; surveillance and emergency management; and, laboratory diagnostics in support of the above. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, CFIA compiled information for consumers about food safety and animal health, and also provided information to industry about CFIA's pandemic response. CFIA continued to provide appropriate oversight of domestic production and imported food products to maintain a safe and stable food supply while supporting trade.

An important element of CFIA's management strategy is to prevent, control and prepare for a resurgence of COVID-19 by providing testing capacity across Canada. Working in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), CFIA joined Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory COVID-19 surge capacity testing laboratory network and played an important role in implementing 2 federal regional testing hubs at the Ottawa and Lethbridge laboratories, testing over 100,000 human COVID-19 samples.

In addition to developing the diagnostic tools for testing both companion and farmed animals for the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus, CFIA also participated in a number of research projects on vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic methods for animal application. This work helped strengthen Canada's efforts to mitigate risks from COVID-19, facilitated informed decision-making and reduced the chances of a non-human reservoir of the virus being developed. While keeping the health and wellbeing of staff as top priority, CFIA introduced flexible initiatives, delayed the enforcement of new regulations and developed a Ministerial Exemption to allow for interprovincial movement of meat when there are meat shortages. CFIA also facilitated the implementation of extensive international collaboration, such as CFIA's acceptance of non-contact methods of certification, and training for accredited vets, ultimately working to adapt to non-contact remote delivery. Alternative policy and program approaches were implemented where possible and available, such as extending industry deadlines for herd certification and pet food export certification to the United States. CFIA's Seed Program applied regulatory flexibility and implemented new audit procedures and training methods. Essential activities such as, renewing licenses, providing oversight and issuing registrations to enable the seed sector to continue delivering a safe, high quality seed supply were also prioritized.

CFIA continues to monitor COVID-19-related developments and supports the efforts of the Canadian and global authorities in their responses by making adjustments to its service delivery plans.

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility: Safe food and healthy plants and animals

Description

CFIA is dedicated to safeguarding food, plants, and animals, which enhances the health and well-being of Canada's people, the environment, and Canada's economy.

The health and safety of Canadians is the driving force behind the design and development of CFIA programs. Through the delivery of its programs, CFIA administers and enforces regulations that aim to mitigate risks to consumers, as well as to mitigate the threat of plant pests and animals diseases to Canada's plant and animal resources.

With industry, academia, consumers, federal partners as well as provincial, territorial and municipal organizations, CFIA works to protect Canadians from preventable health risks related to food and zoonotic diseases that affect both animals and humans. As a global leader, CFIA works with industry and international partners to improve international standards, fairness in trade practices, and regulatory cooperation to increase market access for Canadian products.

CFIA achieves its objectives through: assessing and managing risk; implementing and enforcing regulations; developing and applying new scientific tools and processes; embracing innovation and technology; adopting and promoting science-based international standards; and, cooperating with stakeholders, as appropriate.

• Departmental result 1: food sold in Canada is safe and accurately represented to Canadians
• Departmental result 2: plant and animal resources are protected from diseases and pests and are safe for Canadians and the environment
• Departmental result 3: Canadian food, plants and animals and their associated products can be traded internationally
• Gender-based analysis plus
• Experimentation
• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Goals

Departmental result 1: food sold in Canada is safe and accurately represented to Canadians

Description

Canada is recognized as having one of the strongest food safety systems in the world. CFIA designs and delivers programs to ensure that the food Canadians eat is safe, and that industry understands and follows sound rules to produce or import food that is safe and accurately labelled. CFIA's food safety programs aim to mitigate public health risks, prevent potential hazards in the food supply system and manage food safety emergencies and incidents when they occur by working with industry and federal, provincial, territorial and international food safety partners.

Results achieved

Safe Food for Canadians Act and its regulations

The Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA)and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) fully came into effect in 2019, and continue to guide CFIA's work in strengthening Canada's reputation as a world leader in food safety. The SFCA and SFCR establish consistent, prevention-focused requirements for foods that are imported or prepared for export or to be intra- and inter-provincially traded. CFIA issued 6,340 SFCR licenses in 2020 to 2021; a grand total of 13,319 SFCR licences have been issued since 2019.

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA continued to enforce the implementation of the SFCA and SFCR, including new licensing, preventive control and traceability requirements that apply to food businesses that import or prepare food to be sent across provincial or territorial boundaries or for international export. The new requirements apply to all food sectors, however given the challenges some food businesses faced during the COVID-19 pandemic situation, CFIA prioritized efforts that were focused on food safety and compliance promotion.

Tackling food fraud

CFIA continues to enhance its efforts to prevent, detect and deter food fraud in Canada. CFIA has augmented the food fraud program design by conducting research and engaging with international regulatory partners such as UK's Foods Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Continuous monitoring, environmental scanning, along with an analysis of data and available information enabled CFIA to identify commodities at high-risk for food fraud globally, especially during COVID-19.

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA continued to conduct risk based inspections and testing of certain foods considered high-risk for food fraud, and took enforcement actions when violations were found. CFIA published its honey authenticity surveillance results (2019 to 2020), as well as the fish species substitution surveillance results (2019 to 2020). As part of its efforts to build awareness and promote compliance, CFIA has produced short videos on food fraud and also launched an advertising campaign to educate Canadian consumers about the potential risks associated with food products purchased on the internet, and about how they can protect themselves and their families. CFIA also conducted public opinion research, which provides a baseline understanding of consumer perspectives about food fraud in Canada. CFIA works with industry associations, national and international regulatory partners, and global government food organizations such as Global Alliance on Food Crime to share information and best practices. CFIA continues to collect and analyze data, amassing risk intelligence to inform future food fraud related inspection and surveillance activities.

Food product innovation (formerly food labelling modernization)

Consumer behaviour and domestic and international trade have changed significantly over the decades. As a result of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government of Canada's approach to supporting economic recovery, the scope of the regulatory package proposal to amend certain labelling requirements was changed in summer 2020 to focus on innovating, streamlining and removing duplicate or outdated requirements. For example, repealing some standard container sizes and incorporating others by reference will help support innovation. The amendments are expected to be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II in fall 2021.

Food surveillance review

An in-depth internal review of CFIA's food surveillance activities, including sampling and testing, risk identification and analysis, and activity prioritization, confirmed that CFIA takes a risk-based decision-making approach to surveillance that is both cost effective and efficient. This review also confirmed that using contracted sampling and testing services is a cost-effective addition to CFIA's in-house activities that allows CFIA to expand its surveillance capacity. The review identified a need to improve the in-year monitoring of sample delivery rates, which is being addressed using new capabilities in CFIA's Digital Service Delivery Platform.

Canadian Food Safety Information Network

The Canadian Food Safety Information Network (CFSIN) is a federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) initiative and set of digital applications that were created to better enable food safety authorities to share and analyse data, scan for emerging food safety risks, and collaborate and share expertise to address food safety concerns across Canada. In 2020 to 2021, CFSIN was successfully launched with FPT food authority partners.

As the administrator of CFSIN, CFIA has on-boarded and provided registration support, guidance material and training on the platform's capabilities in order to register users from more than 15 FPT partners across the country. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA has used the CFSIN to search over 10,000 sources of information; creating and sharing monthly reports on emerging food safety risks and special reports on current topics such as food fraud and COVID-19. Providing these reports to partners helps ensure greater awareness and understanding of emerging food safety issues, and better inform preventative approaches to protect Canada's food supply. In 2020 to 2021, the CFSIN was also used by CFIA and partners to share information on their food sampling and testing activities. This exchange of information will help authorities across Canada make decisions about managing food safety risks to Canadians.

Risk assessment models

CFIA developed Establishment-based Risk Assessment (ERA) models to help prioritize its inspection activities in federally regulated establishments. These models use data and mathematical algorithms to evaluate establishments in terms of the level of food safety and/or animal health risks. They will help identify establishments of higher risk and inform where inspectors should be spending more time. In 2021, the results from the ERA-Food model (assessment of food safety risks of food establishments) informed work planning for dairy, maple, egg and honey facilities and was used to assess fish and processed fruits and vegetables establishments. CFIA inspectors also had access to automated data extraction, risk calculation and a daily reporting function, which means that inspectors have up-to-date risk information to prioritize and prepare for inspections in these types of establishments.

Modernized Slaughter Inspection Program

Despite COVID-19-related challenges, a significant milestone was reached in 2020 to 2021, with 10 of the 19 eligible hog-slaughter operators having adopted the Modernized Slaughter Inspection Program (MSIP) from 2018 through the end of this fiscal year. This approach addresses current food safety hazards in addition to bringing compatibility of inspection systems and alignment with trading partners and expected outcomes. Data collected from newly converted slaughter facilities continue to show how effective the MSIP is in meeting food safety outcomes. CFIA continued to work with the remaining eligible hog-slaughter operators to apply the MSIP-Hog model in their facilities across the country.

Comparative Risk Model

In 2020 to 2021, the Comparative Risk Model (CRM) was updated and used to identify high-risk food commodities to support risk-based frameworks, such as ERA, and has also been used to assess resource allocation within CFIA. The CRM has also been used in the following ways:

Pandemic support: to determine priority needs and resource allocation for pandemic support and assisted with COVID-19 resurgence planning and prioritization.

Chronic chemicals: as an assessment of chemical risks in food done with industry experts, academics and Health Canada, to be used to strengthen CRM data and usability.

Food fraud collaboration: to facilitate a food fraud taxonomy and a mapping of adverse effects to fraud types and commodities, which makes it possible for a food fraud tool to be developed to calculate the economic loss resulting from a food fraud incident and ranking food fraud risks supported by evidence-based data.

COVID-19 food safety risk assessment and monitoring

CFIA established an interdepartmental Food Safety COVID-19 Working Group with Health Canada, PHAC, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to monitor and report on emerging information regarding the relationship between food safety and the COVID-19 virus. A comprehensive analysis of the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food supply chain was undertaken to assess the potential for Canadians to contract the COVID-19 virus by consuming products of animal origin from infected livestock and producing or handling potentially contaminated food or food packaging. Although there is currently no comprehensive epidemiological evidence of such, the working group will continue to monitor new information by looking at confirmed cases of COVID-19 and its variants, as well as any confirmed cases of foodborne COVID-19 transmission.

Departmental result 2: plant and animal resources are protected from diseases and pests and are safe for Canadians and the environment

Description

In addition to food safety, CFIA is mandated to protect the health and welfare of Canada's plant and animal resources. CFIA's plant and animal programs aim to prevent the incursion of foreign plant pests and animal diseases, and to contain them should they enter Canada. In close collaboration with its North-American and international partners, CFIA works to mitigate risk to plant and animal resources. CFIA remains at the forefront of a changing climate, rapid technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs while ensuring its services remain reliable and relevant.

Results achieved

Regulatory amendments

Canada's regulatory system must adapt to keep pace with emerging challenges and enable industry to make informed risk-management choices while maintaining strong relationships with regulated parties and other stakeholders to protect the interests of Canadians. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA advanced the following important regulatory proposals:

Fertilizers: Final amendments were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II on November 11, 2020. These regulatory amendments introduced a risk-based approach to regulatory requirements with the goal of facilitating market access for safe and innovative fertilizers and supplements. These new provisions will improve business competitiveness, reduce administrative burden and improve the timeliness of pre-market assessments.

Aquatic animal imports (Health of Animals Regulations): Final amendments were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II on March 31, 2021. These regulatory amendments repealed Schedule III and replaced it with a list of aquatic species that is incorporated by reference. These amendments will reduce the risk of diseases being introduced by allowing the list to be easily updated to remain consistent with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH; founded as Office International des Épizooties (OIE)) international standards.

As a result of the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on stakeholders and government, timelines for some CFIA regulatory initiatives were delayed. These initiatives are still progressing and should be included in CFIA's 2021 to 2022 Departmental Results Report.

Implementation of humane transport regulatory amendments

On February 20, 2020, regulatory amendments to the Health of Animals Regulations, Part XII, Transport of Animals came into force. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA collaborated extensively with stakeholders and regulated parties to ensure there was a common understanding and consistent implementation of the new requirements. The new regulatory provisions improve the humane transport of animals during the entire transportation process. With consumers becoming more aware of, and concerned with, how farm animals are kept, transported and slaughtered, these stronger regulations will increase consumer confidence in Canada's animal welfare standards. They will also support Canada's international trade status as trading partners place a growing importance on the animal welfare of exporting countries.

African swine fever

Collaboration is the most important factor in preventing and controlling the spread of African swine fever (ASF), a reportable animal disease, into and within Canada. To this end, the Pan-Canadian Action Plan for ASF was launched in summer 2020. Federal, provincial and industry partners are working together to advance activities under 4 key pillars: Prevention and Enhanced Biosecurity, Preparedness Planning, Ensuring Business Continuity, and Coordinated Risk Communications. In 2020 to 2021, key advancements included

• the development of CFIA-led CanSpotASF, an enhanced national surveillance program, and the subsequent piloting of an active surveillance approach to risk-based early detection at approved provincial and federal laboratories
• the development of new non-invasive diagnostic testing for ASF that reduces the need to handle pigs, in collaboration with national and international partners
• the development of a highly sensitive and specific portable diagnostic test that will allow CFIA to rapidly detect ASF on site detection to control the disease if an outbreak occurs
• the addition of added zoning arrangements (Singapore and the U.S.-Canada protocol for an incursion in wild pigs) and continued collaborative work on developing compartmentalization in Canada
• the contribution to a number of webinars and online workshops to enhance ASF awareness among Canadian veterinarians, small-scale swine producers and ethnic retailers
• the implementation of communications campaigns to encourage awareness of ASF among small scale food producers and small food retailers who may import meat products
• additional campaigns in collaboration with CBSA to promote awareness at the border with travellers (declare meat products) and increased biosecurity (declare farm visits)

The ASF Executive Management Board continues to bring together FPT governments and industry representatives to provide guidance and prioritize activities in order to address the risk of ASF introduction and establishment in Canada.

Equine Infectious Anemia Disease Control Program

At the request of industry, CFIA delivers the Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) Disease Control Program with the goal of reducing the number of horses in Canada that are infected by EIA. CFIA is making digital equine infectious anemia (EIA) certification mandatory as of December 1, 2021. Implementation was delayed slightly to enable CFIA to address issues raised during a survey of Accredited Veterinarians. The current program has made great strides in Eastern Canada resulting in decreasing numbers of positive test results for the disease.

Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Laboratory Network

The CFIA-led Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Laboratory Network's (BSL4ZNet) works with government organizations that have animal and human health mandates to enhance partners' knowledge, competencies and capacities to prepare and respond effectively to current and emerging high consequence diseases. From its inception, the network has focused on activities such as research on priority zoonotic pathogens and collecting information on member organizations' capacities through a benchmarking survey. In addition, the network has facilitated in-person training of world class personnel at high containment facilities. In 2020 to 2021, the BSL4ZNet built on past successes and continued its core activities by conducting virtual biosafety training and institutional cooperation workshops. In addition, the network bolstered its efforts to actively support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through these, the BSL4ZNet helped partners share expertise, as well as materials, information and preliminary COVID research results. Finally, CFIA, through the BSL4ZNet, hosted an international virtual symposium miniseries, which brought together over 1,000 participants from around the world to discuss the latest COVID-19 science and response strategies. By distributing COVID-19-related knowledge and enhancing research collaboration, the BSL4ZNet's efforts ultimately strengthened both the Canadian and international response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy negligible risk status achieved

In 2020, CFIA worked closely with provinces and the beef industry to put forward a strong application to the World Animal Health Organisation (WOAH) for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) negligible risk status. As a result, Canada has been officially recognized by the WOAH World Assembly of Delegates as a country with negligible risk for BSE, a reportable animal disease, which means that Canada has achieved the best status under the WOAH's three-tiered categorization system for evaluating BSE risk. These efforts show the importance of collaboration in achieving the best possible outcome for Canada. Having achieved a negligible risk status will provide increased opportunity for the Canadian beef and cattle industry in the areas of international trade and market access by gaining access to new export markets. CFIA will work with the cattle and beef sectors, provinces and territories to maintain the negligible risk status through continued efforts to prevent and control the spread of domestic and foreign animal diseases.

Establishment-based risk assessment models for hatcheries and feed

CFIA continued to build on the success of the establishment-based risk assessment (ERA) models in the food and animal program area. The model has now been adapted for hatcheries, feed mills and rendering plants. The model has integrated risk-based inspection and will help CFIA identify data gaps in the Salmonella detection processes of hatcheries, as well as allocate inspection resources based on animal and human health risks for both renderers and feed mills.

Federal grain partnership

The joint efforts between CFIA and the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) have resulted in achieving an increased level of confidence in domestic and international consumers in the quality, safety and integrity of Canadian grain. CFIA is sharing knowledge, technical expertise and source code related with the Digital Services Delivery Platform (DSDP) and the client-facing My CFIA portal with CGC in supporting their efforts to develop a parallel My CGC portal. Having both portals up and running will support integrated inspection activities and enhance the partnership between the 2 organizations in support of enhanced and seamless service delivery to our respective clients. In light of the impact of COVID-19, CFIA and CGC focused on identifying opportunities for a cooperative inspection approach for 2021 to 2022.

Sidney Centre for Plant Health

The Sidney Centre for Plant Health is Canada's first line of defence against potentially invasive species, viruses and other plant diseases, which is critical to keeping Canadians, agri-business and the environment safe. The centre is being upgraded to a world-class plant health science facility that will provide CFIA scientists and partners with state-of-the-art amenities to advance this work.

Architectural and engineering contracts were awarded in fall 2020 and the design is under developed. CFIA has also been working with Laboratories Canada and Shared Services Canada to explore IM/IT solutions that support modernized genomics analytics to detect viruses in plants. The modernized facility will allow for more rapid testing to better detect regulated plant diseases.

Review of regulatory programs for biotechnology products

With the advent of ground-breaking biotechnologies and with over 25 years of experience in assessing biotechnology products, CFIA has revised its guidance for clarifying when a plant is regulated. CFIA updated its guidance to maintain the same standards of safety while improving the predictability and clarity of the regulatory system, which will allow businesses to plan with greater confidence and, consequently, support investment and innovation in Canada.

Canadian Plant Health Information System

The Canadian Plant Health Information System (CPHIS) is a CFIA-led initiative that will strengthen communication and support evidence-based decision-making among Canadian plant health authorities. The implementation of the Canadian Food Safety Information Network (CFSIN) this year positioned CFIA to initiate the extension of the CFSIN platform to support information sharing between plant health protection partners, through the development of CPHIS. In 2020 to 2021 CFIA also developed detailed documentation that was used in extensive internal and external engagement with the aim of informing stakeholders, and generating general support for CPHIS.

Application modernization

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA launched the first wave of its application modernization projects, which focused on supporting plant and animal health programs. This work led to electronic submissions for fertilizer registrations, allowing applicants to apply, track, receive and pay for registrations online. Work is also being done to create a digital solution that will capture and map surveillance data and assign tasks to inspectors all in real time. This will improve CFIA's delivery of pest surveys, particularly in situations where detections have occurred and been eradicated.

Community science

The Canadian public plays an important role in helping CFIA protect Canada's plant and animal resource base by identifying trends in native and invasive species through community science initiatives. CFIA collaborated with provincial invasive species centres to help community members identify, report and limit the spread of 10 different pests, including: the Asian longhorned beetle; hemlock woolly adelgid; and, elm zigzag sawfly. CFIA partnered with community science mobile and desktop application platforms (such as iNaturalist and EDDMapS) to help the public monitor plant pests. The first-ever North American sighting of elm zigzag sawfly was reported through iNaturalist by a community scientist in Quebec, leading to enhanced collaborative surveillance activities. Informed by community science reports, CFIA distributed more box tree moth monitoring kits in Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. In Nova Scotia, CFIA held an outdoor field session and complementary virtual workshop with the Confederation of Mainland Mi'kmaq on identifying and controlling emerald ash borer.

Companion and farmed animal risk analysis and testing for COVID-19

CFIA has undertaken a significant amount of research to understand how the COVID-19 virus affects both companion and farmed animals, including species susceptibility and potential transmission pathways between animals as well as between animals and humans. Although current data suggest that the overall risk for human infection through animal contact is low, CFIA developed surveillance guidelines with FPT partners and shared a testing protocol with provincial laboratories to support ongoing monitoring. In addition to developing the diagnostic tools for testing animals for COVID-19, CFIA also participated in a number of research projects on vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic methods for animal application. This work strengthens Canada's efforts to mitigate risks from COVID-19, to make informed decisions, and to reduce the chances of a non-human reservoir of the virus being developed.

Pivoting during the COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020 to 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of setting risk based priorities and delivering essential services. Throughout the fiscal year, CFIA subject-matter experts analyzed, assessed and prioritized CFIA's front line services by considering public health, the health and safety of CFIA employees and the economic wellbeing of Canadians. This risk assessment process allowed CFIA to identify and to deliver its essential services in support of plant and animal health such as: disease/pest investigations, export and import inspection services, inspection presence at meat establishments, emergency management and related laboratory diagnostics. As provinces began easing public health restrictions based on each region's context, CFIA developed interim guidance for inspectors to maximize business resumption within public health restraints and providing flexibility to respond to the specific regional and provincial situations/contexts during the pandemic.

Departmental result 3: Canadian food, plants and animals and their associated products can be traded internationally

Description

CFIA supports government trade priorities, and opens and maintains Canadian businesses' access to international markets. This enables the flow of safe food, plant and animal imports and exports, and supports the economy.

Results achieved

International standard setting

Participating in international standard setting allows Canada to promote the development of science-based international standards, support predictable and transparent rules-based trade, and ensure Canadian approaches are reflected. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA:

• led Canada's participation in the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the WOAH, and co-led, with Health Canada, Canada's participation in the Codex Alimentarius Commission; through these efforts, promoted the development of science-based international standards, consistent with Canada's regulatory framework and Canadian interests
• advanced the work of the IPPC virtually, representing Canada on the Standards Committee where CFIA contributed to the revision of various draft international standards for phytosanitary measures (ISPMs) and treatment; was voted as Chair of the IPPC's Implementation and Capacity Development Committee
• continued to co-lead free trade agreement negotiations for the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures Chapter with the Mercosur trading bloc; engaged in technical discussions with Indonesia about approaches on obligations to SPS measures to determine the feasibility of launching a bilateral free-trade agreement
• advanced efforts at the World Trade Organization (WTO) SPS Committee to examine how regulatory approval procedures for food safety and animal and plant health may contribute to unnecessary trade barriers and gathered existing resources on how to structure these procedures in a way that is consistent with international obligations
• continued to work towards achieving and maintaining negligible risk status for BSE, in efforts to gain access to additional export markets for Canadian cattle, beef and beef products among countries that require products to originate from countries with negligible BSE risk status

International regulatory cooperation and collaboration

CFIA cooperates with other countries to advance international regulatory and science initiatives. This ensures that Canada's science-based positions and regulatory systems are accepted internationally, that regulatory and bilateral relationships are established and maintained, and associated risks are mitigated. In 2020 to 2021, representing Canada, CFIA:

• continued engagement with the European Union (EU) through the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement SPS Joint Management Committee to advance market-access issues, and exchange information supporting domestic food safety, plant health and animal health objectives
• was actively involved in developing and adopting a North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO) regional standard on phytosanitary measures, specifically, the authorization of laboratories to perform phytosanitary testing; a revision to the NAPPO glossary of phytosanitary terms; and a science and technology document on the risks associated with the introduction of exotic tussock moths species of potential concern to the NAPPO region which consists of Canada, the US and Mexico
• participated in a virtual meeting of the Plant Health Quadrilaterals, hosted by Australia, to discuss IPPC issues of common interest before the March 2021 meeting of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM-15)
• trained Senegalese scientists, in accordance with Canada's international commitments within the framework of the WTO's Agreement on the Application of SPS Measures by providing technical assistance to developing countries and demonstrating international leadership in the application of new technologies and processes in plant protection
• shared information and reports on experiences with Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) members and other countries regarding implementing CPTPP provisions in the areas of adaption to regional conditions, equivalence and transparency

Market access support

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA resolved 76 market-access issues for exports, including markets gained, regained, maintained, enhanced or expanded. At the height of the pandemic, the international trade of agricultural goods was impacted by a number of factors, including border closures and reduced conveyance methods. Steps were taken to ensure that the import and export of goods and their regulatory oversight was maintained. Measures were put in place to accept scanned certificates, which made it possible for the trade of animals and animal by-products, plant, and food commodities to continue. Canada leveraged virtual platforms to negotiate the conditions that allowed for expanded market access abroad.

Competitiveness and innovation

CFIA plays a critical role in promoting food safety and protecting plant and animal health in response to emerging diseases and other risks while facilitating competitiveness, innovation and inclusive economic growth in the agriculture and agri-food sectors. The unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic situation world-wide demonstrated the critical role that more flexible legislation, including regulations, can play to alleviate challenges in the food supply chain. Continued agility could also help promote Canada's economic recovery and further assist industry to better anticipate and respond to similar situations or events in the future. CFIA held a public consultation on Framing Competitiveness and Innovation for Success to gauge Canadians' and stakeholders' views on how it could further improve its regulatory, programmatic and service delivery model to promote competitiveness and innovation in the agriculture and agri-food sectors.

E-certification: redesigning the delivery model

Using the new online Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP), CFIA was able to support the international trade of a number of food products and live animals digitally. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA inspectors used digital tools within the DSDP to issue 8,082 export certificates for food products and live animals, furthering the Government of Canada's commitment to provide services online. Ultimately, CFIA will migrate fully to the online service platform which will strengthen its ability to consistently deliver services that support international trade of Canadian food, plants and animals and their associated products.

Gender-based analysis plus

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) is used by CFIA to achieve inclusive outcomes for Canadians and stakeholders, by accounting for factors such as business size, geography and activity type, in considering possible impacts of CFIA's legislation, policies, programs and services.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CFIA also began to collect data, such as the business capacity of sectors like meat processing, to provide more responsive, tailored services and guidance to support the economic recovery and resiliency of the agriculture and agri-food sector.

In 2020–21, CFIA committed to delivering GBA Plus training to more of its employees and integrating it into key functional areas. It also committed to completing a data scan and accompanying strategy to provide evidence needed to develop options for program and service delivery that reflect the needs of Canada's diverse population. Results achieved in 2020-21 are as follows:

• CFIA completed an awareness campaign to assist key program and functional areas in integrating GBA Plus into their core business, and applied it when making policies that help support diversity in CFIA's hiring practices and to develop training for CFIA's diverse workforce
• CFIA has begun data scan of activities to determine the data collected for identity factors such as age, gender, Indigeneity and other factors to better serve stakeholders' needs on an ongoing basis
• CFIA continued to apply GBA Plus principles to reduce unintended impacts of its regulations, policies and programs on underrepresented populations. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, CFIA considered how best to support the varying needs of our diverse Canadian industry during this challenging time, such as by providing additional enforcement flexibility, or rapid, tailored communications and advice

Experimentation

As a science-based regulator, CFIA recognizes the need to continually test assumptions and experiment with new and novel approaches to existing and new problems with a view to improving outcomes for Canadians. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA carried out the following experimentation initiatives:

Innovative Solutions Canada challenge

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA awarded funds to Canadian small businesses through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program to develop instruments that can be used in the field to detect foodborne pathogenic bacteria, find phytosanitary treatments to control quarantine plant pests and develop devices to detect marine biotoxins in shellfish. These initiatives will help drive innovations needed to improve food safety and plant health in Canada. Through the ISC program, CFIA is able to explore the possibility of integrating new innovations to meet evolving needs while stimulating growth in Canadian businesses.

Encouraged by the success of the ISC Challenge, CFIA also supports and funds an annual event where employees advance innovative ideas and potential solutions to challenges identified in the execution of their day-to-day work or experienced by industry sectors in complying with federal requirements and Government of Canada objectives. Selected finalists present their ideas to a panel of CFIA executives to qualify for funding to further refine these or to develop and test pilots or prototypes.

The Drone Pilot was a successful project funded by this event in 2020 to 2021, which sought to advance inspection technologies by exploring the possibility of virtual inspections using unmanned aircrafts that fly autonomously. The idea was to access more or otherwise dangerous terrain for inspection purposes while lowering inspection costs and potentially increasing opportunities for compliance. Devices were obtained and field testing on functionality was carried out in 2020. CFIA is exploring the use of drone technology in other areas with a view to carrying out additional testing throughout 2021. As Canada continues to adjust to an evolving Covid-19 pandemic situation, new and innovative solutions – such as the Drone Pilot – leverage technology to maintain and potentially improve how CFIA delivers on its mandate.

Virtual website assistant

CFIA is experimenting with new ways to offer services and information to its stakeholders. In response to a high demand for information regarding the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations requirements, a virtual digital assistant was launched on CFIA's website to more easily guide food manufacturers and consumers to the pertinent information online. This pilot showed successful results and was expanded to cover several other searched topics online to address the expressed needs of regulated parties and members of the public. For example, to improve client experience, the Virtual Assistant was expanded to include travelling with pets in March of 2021. A new travelling with pets import page was redesigned to assist clients with finding import requirements for bringing their animals to Canada. The new tool asks interactive questions and summarizes import requirements such a permits and certificates required to enter Canada for all animals that clients may regard as pets.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

CFIA is experimenting in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), and is developing AI products in consultation with industry. CFIA uses statistical learning models to develop business solutions. In its pursuit of continuous improvement, it then collects data, does modelling and training, and then measures, validates, deploys and enhances those solutions. Many pilot projects have been completed, including a targeting tool for African swine fever that uses machine-learning algorithms. This tool was presented at the 2020 Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting and was very well received. Since then, CFIA has received invitations from international government agencies and universities. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA also deployed a warning tool for the presence of invasive insects and plants; the tool is used by dozens of biologists within CFIA.

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals

In September 2015, Canada and 192 other UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda is a 15-year global framework centered on an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 agenda envisions a secure world free of poverty and hunger, with full and productive employment, access to quality education and universal health coverage, the achievement of gender equality, the empowerment of all women and girls, and an end to environmental degradation. It is a universal call to action, implicating both developing and developed countries, to end poverty and other deprivations around the world.

Aligned with the SDG health strategy, CFIA further supported year-round access to safe and nutritious food by allocating funds to Canadian small businesses through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program, and by creating a federal working group to monitor and report on new information on the relationship between food safety and the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus.

CFIA improved its risk-based focus by making changes to the Fertilizers Regulations (C.R.C., c. 666), which came into force October 26, 2020. Effective CFIA and industry oversight of the use of fertilizers and supplements supports environmentally sound management of these products and significantly reduces their unintended release to air, water and soil to minimize their negative impacts on human health and the environment.

CFIA also supported sustainable development abroad through technical assistance missions and information sharing visits from foreign developing countries and emerging economy delegations. CFIA's financial contribution to sustainable development abroad in 2020 to 2021 totalled approximately $667,000. The financial contribution supported the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda, specifically through access by individuals – especially the poor and those in vulnerable situations including infants – to safe, nutritious and sufficient food year round. It also supported the development of sustainable food production systems and the implementation of resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production. Finally, CFIA also contributed to the global fight against communicable zoonotic diseases.

CFIA has voluntarily participated in the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) since 2010, and contributes to 4 of the FSDS goals: greening government, healthy wildlife populations, sustainable food and connecting Canadians with nature. In support of the implementation of the 2019 to 2022 FSDS, CFIA published its Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy 2020 to 2023 in October 2020.

Financial, human resources and performance information for CFIA's program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Internal Services

Description

Internal Services are the groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

• Acquisition Management Services
• Communication Services
• Financial Management Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Legal Services
• Material Management Services
• Management and Oversight Services
• Real Property Management Services

Results achieved

Human resources

CFIA continued to implement its mental health strategy in 2020 to 2021, working with bargaining agents to ensure there was a focus on supporting the wellness and well-being of employees and ensuring that mental health resources were available and promoted during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely by

• completing a joint union-management selection process to identify a new Mental Health Champion
• launching a one-stop shop for mental health resources and support
• implementing mental health training initiatives and holding virtual sessions and events targeting various groups at CFIA, such as senior leadership, executives, management and employees
• developing a toolkit for managers on mental health in the workplace

CFIA also focused its efforts to

• support its mandate in conducting the emergency staffing of a significant number of term employees to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including revising its HR policy and procedures
• advance learning and training to support new hires and the major shift to virtual learning
• support the health and safety of front-line employees during the COVID-19 pandemic response by creating new guidance and protocols to follow
• promote transparent, fair and equal opportunity staffing with a particular focus on attracting a representative workforce while also promoting increased opportunities for Canadian youth to join the public service ranks and meaningfully contribute to the building of a workplace of the future
• expand access to student placements to include post-secondary students who are enrolled in part-time studies, increasing opportunities for students who are unable to attend school full time for reasons such as family status or financial reasons
• build specific commitments for senior management, managers and Human Resources into the Staffing Program to support diversity and inclusion
• conduct targeted recruitment for Employment Equity groups, such as Indigenous Peoples, to target and attract talent from post-secondary institution recruitment programs in a field of study that is relevant to CFIA's business priorities

Enhancing project management

CFIA strengthened its project management capabilities in response to the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) Policy on the Planning and Management of Investments and Directive on the Management of Projects and Programs. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA:

• improved its advice and guidance on project management, modernized the results and effectiveness of CFIA's Enterprise Project Management Framework, and aligned itself to the renewed TBS guidance used across CFIA to further increase project management maturity against results delivery
• continued to participate as one of the 6 departments and agencies chosen to pilot the Organizational Project Management Capacity Assessment (OPMCA) an assessment used to demonstrate organizational project management capacity and Project Complexity and Risk Assessment (PCRA) intended to support the Treasury Board Policy on the Management of Projects and the Standard for Project Complexity and Risk
• continued its Organizational Project Management Capacity Assessment (OPMCA) and related Treasury Board (TB) submission to request renewal of CFIA's class 2, Tactical rating; the sustained class 2 recognizes that CFIA continues to have sufficient project management capacity to effectively manage the vast majority of the projects in its investment plan
• launched executive-level project management training in fall 2020 as part of the phased approach to implementing its project management vision
• identified gaps in skills and training for CFIA's project management resources, and introduced a competency development program that will be launched in 2021 to 2022

Enhancing open and transparent government

By implementing its Transparency Agenda, which directly supports the Government of Canada's Open Government initiative, CFIA aims to provide Canadians with relevant, accurate and timely information about its regulations, programs and services. CFIA accomplished the following in 2020 to 2021:

• helped Canadians make informed decisions about the food, animal and plant products they purchase and consume and continuing to add services to MyCFIA
• compiled information about food safety and animal health throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to help protect the health of Canadians and to assist with the preservation of the integrity of Canada's food safety system
• provided industry and consumers with information about CFIA's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how CFIA continued to perform its critical services with respect to oversight of domestic food production and imported food products to maintain a safe and stable food supply while supporting trade
• posted more than 20 new open datasets, including machine-readable results of food-safety monitoring and targeted surveys, to the Open Government Data Portal to make its data more accessible to the public as part of the Government of Canada's Open Government initiative
• published papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals about how CFIA is identifying animal health and food safety risk factors for livestock feed mills and working with external experts to assess their potential impacts as part of building its Establishment-based Risk Assessment model

Open data

CFIA has redesigned its publishing process to allow data to be released more quickly. CFIA published 15 food surveillance datasets on the Open Government Portal, and has made the datasets of published food safety testing reports open by default and design. CFIA also published a catalogue of genomic data for foodborne bacteria isolated by CFIA. Together, this information will help domestic and international regulatory partners, the scientific community, and other interested parties to detect pathogens in food products early.

Open Science

Open Science aims to make scientific datasets, journal articles and publications produced by government scientists and research professionals freely available and easily accessible to the public. This practice is built on collaboration with federal partners by exchanging knowledge and having common approaches to make federal science and research outputs readily available to Canadians. In 2020 to 2021, CFIA responded to the recommendations made in Canada's Roadmap for Open Science by selecting a Chief Scientific Data Officer responsible for coordinating Open Data, Open Science and Science Data Management, as well as for continuing to publish CFIA datasets. Also in line with roadmap recommendations, CFIA consulted the internal scientific community about Open Science at CFIA. These achievements will significantly advance CFIA's progress in making its scientific information findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

Information management and information technology

Over the past year, CFIA faced the challenge of having to shift some of its workforce to a remote work environment in response to an evolving COVID-19 pandemic situation. CFIA quickly procured needed (mobile) devices and worked closely with Shared Services Canada to increase remote access while also launching new collaboration tools (such as MS teams) and also adding new services to MyCFIA to support regulated parties. In accordance with the Government of Canada's Digital Standards, CFIA worked tirelessly to provide its employee base with the tools and capabilities that were needed to continue to perform and support critical activities in the areas of protecting food safety and plant and animal health.

Financial, human resources and performance information for CFIA's program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Departmental spending trend graph

The following graph presents planned (voted and statutory spending) over time.

Description for planned spending graph

	2018 to 2019	2019 to 2020	2020 to 2021	2021 to 2022	2022 to 2023	2023 to 2024
Statutory	160	135	149	147	148	147
Voted	632	617	671	639	660	646
Total	792	752	820	786	808	793

CFIA increased its spending for 2020 to 2021 to account for salary cost increases related to recently ratified collective agreements and to maintain its inspection capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic situation while also investing in CFIA core services.

The planned spending for fiscal year 2021 to 2022 is less than the forecast actual spending for the previous fiscal year. This reduction is primarily due to the sun setting (or discontinuation) of various initiatives. When including the anticipated renewal of sunsetting resources, the planned spending is forecasted to be more stable.

Actual human resources

Expenditures by vote

For information on CFIA's organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2020 to 2021.

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of CFIA's spending with the Government of Canada's spending and activities is available in the GC InfoBase.

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

CFIA's financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2021, are available on the departmental website.

Financial statement highlights

The following financial statement highlights are intended to serve as a general overview of CFIA's financial position and operations.

Financial statements are prepared in accordance with accrual accounting principles, Treasury Board accounting policies, and year-end instructions issued by the Office of the Comptroller General which are based on generally accepted Canadian accounting principles for the public sector, as required under Section 31 of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act. The financial information presented in earlier sections of this Department Results Report was drawn from the Public Accounts of Canada, which were prepared using an expenditure basis of accounting (also known as modified cash accounting).

CFIA's expenses for the fiscal year 2020 to 2021 were $889 million, an increase of $50.1 million compared to 2019-20. Items contributing to the increase are as follows:

• $38.5 million increase in salaries and retroactive payments is mainly due to the renewal of collective agreements and an increase in vacation accruals due to the postponement of mandatory vacation and compensatory leave cash-outs
• $11.5 million increase in professional services is due to increases in litigation cost and accrued contingent liabilities
• $5.3 million increase in chronic wasting disease compensation was partially offset by $1.4 million decrease pertaining to Bovine tuberculosis (TB) compensation
• $2.9 million increase in material and supplies can be attributed to the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect employees from COVID-19

These increases were offset by a $8.8 million decrease in travel due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

2020 to 2021 total revenues were $53.7 million, a decrease of $2.5 million compared to 2019-20 explained by changes in fee structure due to the implementation of Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR).

The total liabilities at the end of 2020 to 2021 were $201.6 million, an increase of $31.8 million from the previous year. The aforementioned renewal of collective agreements and postponement of the automatic cash-out of vacation leave caused an increase in salaries payable and accrued liabilities. The increase in net financial assets is due to an increase in the Due from Consolidated Revenue Fund – a result of the increase in payables and decrease in receivables.

2020 to 2021 total non-financial assets amounted to $177.5 million, a decrease of $7.9 million compared to 2019 to 2020 as amortization outweighed new investment.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos
Institutional head: Siddika Mithani, Ph.D.
Ministerial portfolio: Health
Enabling instrument(s):

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act
• Food and Drugs Act (as it relates to food)
• Safe Food for Canadians Act
• Fertilizers Act
• Plant Breeders' Rights Act
• Plant Protection Act
• Seeds Act
• Health of Animals Act
• Feeds Act

Year of incorporation / commencement: 1997

Raison d'être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

Raison d'être

CFIA is a large science-based regulatory agency with employees working across Canada in the National Capital Region and in 4 operational regions: Atlantic, Québec, Ontario and Western Canada.

CFIA is dedicated to safeguarding food , and animal and plant health, which enhances Canada's environment, economy, and the health and well-being of its residents. Additionally, to support market access, CFIA works with Canada's trading partners to verify that Canadian products meet importing countries' technical requirements, thus expanding, gaining, restoring or maintaining access to markets.

Mandate and role

In fulfilling its role as a science-based regulatory agency, CFIA serves Canadians by developing policies and strategies, conducting specialized laboratory tests, and monitoring industry practice and compliance with legislation, in order to

• protect Canadians from preventable food safety risks
• protect consumers through a fair and effective food, animal and plant regulatory regime that supports competitive domestic and international markets
• contribute to the security of Canada's plant and animal resource base by preventing and managing regulated pests, diseases and invasive species
• provide sound agency management

CFIA works with a variety of departments across all 3 levels of government, collaborates with stakeholders, and remains receptive to the values of interests groups. Together, all parties play a unique role in managing food, plant and animal risks, incidents and emergencies as they occur, and the implementation of appropriate measures and interventions where necessary.

For more information on CFIA's organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Minister of Health's mandate letter.

Operating context

CFIA operates within a rapidly changing context as Canada is inextricably linked to a global economy and international influences. Risks to the food system and animal and plant resources have changed considerably in recent years and will continue to evolve rapidly. A growing population and diverse consumer preferences have led to an increasing volume and variety of products on the market. Global commerce has brought new business models and consolidation in the food and agricultural industry. Emerging and disruptive technology requires a regulatory system that promotes responsible adoption of such technology for public good without stifling innovation.

While these changes provide opportunities for Canadians, they bring operational challenges to CFIA. For instance, risks to food safety, animal and plant health have increased as a result of expanded international trade, accelerated technological innovation, and an increasingly complex and global supply chain of agricultural products. In addition, climate change is introducing potential risks, such as the possibility of pests and diseases becoming established in Canada where they would not have been able in the past.

Reporting framework

CFIA's Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2020 to 2021 are shown below.

Description for image: Departmental results framework and program inventory

The first section of the image is the Departmental Results Framework which shows the relationship between the service categories under Core responsibility: Safe food and healthy plants and animal and the activities and resources (Internal Services) related to each category.

The next section is a listing of the program inventory.

Departmental Results Framework

Service categories under Core responsibility: Safe food and healthy plants and animal are:

• Departmental result 1: Food sold in Canada is safe and accurately represented to Canadians
• Departmental result 2: Plant and animal resources are protected from diseases and pets and are safe for Canadians and the environment
• Departmental result 3: Canadian food, plants and animals and their associated products can be traded internationally

Internal Services related to the service categories are as follows:

Departmental Result 1: Food sold in Canada is safe and accurately represented to Canadians

Percentage of food businesses that comply with federal rules

• Value: 98%
• Target: 95%

Percentage of public warnings for high risk food recalls that are issued within 24 hours of a recall decision

• Value: 100%
• Target: 95%

Departmental Result 2: Plant and animal resources are protected from diseases and pets and are safe for Canadians and the environment

Number of harmful foreign pests that have entered and established themselves in Canada

• Value: 2
• Target: 0

Percentage of domestic seed, fertilizer, and new or modified plant varieties and products that comply with Canadian regulations and international agreements

• Value: 92.2%
• Target: 95%

Percentage of inspected loads of live animals that comply with federal humane transportation requirements

• Value: 98%
• Target: 95%

Number of cases of animal diseases that affect human and/or animal health that have entered into Canada

• Value: 0
• Target: 0

Departmental Result 3: Canadian food, plants and animals and their associated products can be traded internationally

Number of shipments of Canadian goods that are rejected at foreign borders because they do not meet their import requirements

• Value: 784 or 0.51%
• Target: Less than prior year's number (1,275) rejections or ( ≤ 0.6%)

Program inventory

• Setting rules for food safety and consumer protection
• Food safety and consumer protection compliance promotion
• Monitoring and enforcement for food safety and consumer protection
• Permissions for food products
• Setting rules for plant health
• Plant health compliance promotion
• Monitoring and enforcement for plant health
• Permissions for plant products
• Setting rules for animal health
• Animal health compliance promotion
• Monitoring and enforcement for animal health
• Permissions for animal products
• International standard setting
• International regulatory cooperation and science collaboration
• International market access support

Supporting information on the program inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for CFIA's Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Supplementary information tables

• Reporting on Green Procurement
• Details on transfer payment programs
• Gender-based analysis plus
• Horizontal initiatives
• Response to Parliamentary committees and external audits
• Up-front multi-year funding

Reporting on Green Procurement

This supplementary information table supports reporting on green procurement activities in accordance with the Policy on Green Procurement.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is not bound by the Federal Sustainable Development Act and chose to voluntarily develop a 2020 to 2023 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS). CFIA has developed its corresponding 2020 to 2021 DSDS Annual Results Report, including applicable reporting on green procurement activities. This report can be found on CFIA's website.

Details on transfer payment programs

Gender-based analysis plus

Section 1: Institutional GBA Plus Capacity

CFIA has 1 dedicated full time equivalent to serve as a focal point in Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) to help ensure that CFIA considers the impact of our programs, policies and services on diverse sub-populations and underrepresented groups in Canada.

The focal point works with all branches and program areas to raise awareness on the GBA Plus requirements and provides guidance on the application of available disaggregate data to inform Cabinet and budget proposals.

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA continued to build and expand its GBA Plus Advisors Network, and focused its efforts on GBA Plus integration in key functional areas including audit and evaluation, training development and human resources.

Section 2: Gender and diversity impacts, by program

Core responsibility: Safe food and healthy plants and animals

Program name: International market access support

Free trade agreements

When GBA Plus is applied to the negotiation and implementation of trade agreements, it can help inform negotiators and policymakers of how to possibly address gender and diversity considerations as they relate to the rules that govern international trade. The end goal is to mitigate potentially negative impacts and to ensure that all Canadians benefit from clear and predictable rules of international trade. For example, CFIA's International Affairs Branch provides leadership on trade commitments that govern how regulatory measures are applied so that they do not become unnecessary barriers to international trade.

Target population: All Canadians; regulated industry

Key impacts: Application of GBA Plus to the negotiation and implementation of free trade agreements provides an opportunity to consider potential impacts across all 3 of CFIA's business lines – food, plant and animal. All Canadians and Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector are expected to benefit uniformly from agreements that improve market access and facilitate the flow of trade to, from and within Canada.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

Nothing to report for 2020 to 2021.

Program name: Monitoring and enforcement for food safety and consumer protection

CFIA's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CFIA continued to deliver critical services to protect food safety, animal health, plant health and market access. Appropriate oversight of domestic production and imported food products are essential to providing safe food for consumers while supporting trade and the supply chain.

As part of its response to the pandemic, CFIA strengthened data collection related to identity factors of business owners, and applied GBA Plus principles to gain insight into the extent to which regulatory flexibility would impact businesses.

Target population: All Canadians; regulated industry

Key impacts: In-step with its partners across the federal government, provinces and territories, CFIA took action to support producers, processors, and agri-food businesses facing hardship as a result of the global COVID-19 outbreak.

To minimize market disruption and maintain a steady supply of meat products during the pandemic, CFIA applied GBA Plus principles to provide regulatory flexibility to support diverse businesses facing challenges and hardship.

These situations included plant closures, supply shortages, or overabundance of food animals due to sudden reductions in slaughter capacity of processing facilities. In regard to plant closures or reduction in processing capacity, application of gender-based analysis principles showed the meat sector to be at greater risk of operational challenges, due in part to the composition of its workforce, which tends to include a greater proportion of low-income populations, visible minorities and marginalized groups.

To help support the economy, alleviate supply disruptions in Canadian grocery stores, and avoid food waste, CFIA implemented specific measures such as increased flexibility for packaging and labelling of foodservice products used by hotels, restaurants and institutions, and prepackaged meat products. In this way, CFIA was able to support industry to continue operations while maintaining food safety.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

Nothing to report for 2020 to 2021.

Program name: Monitoring and enforcement for food safety and consumer protection

Tackling food fraud

Food fraud is generally considered to be the misrepresentation or adulteration of a product for economic gain. For example, if farmed salmon is marketed as wild salmon, consumers will pay a higher price for it. In some cases, food fraud can also present a health risk, for instance if an ingredient is knowingly added that is an allergen, but is not declared on the label.

When food fraud occurs, it can have economic and health impacts. It could mean that Canadians are paying more for products that are not quite what they expect. It can also pose a health risk if unidentified allergens or hazardous materials are added to food products.

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA published reports on activities conducted in 2019 to 2020 related to honey authenticity and fish species substitution.

Target population: All Canadians; regulated industry

Food fraud tends to have a higher impact on low-income consumers, and vulnerable groups with diet-related diseases or conditions such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Consumers seeking to align their food choices with social, lifestyle, or ethical values or beliefs – such as to be environmentally-conscious, or support certain food production practices – are also impacted to a greater extent.

In 2020 to 2021, CFIA published the results of 2 targeted surveillance activities: Fish species substitution, and adulteration of honey with foreign sugars. Fish species substitution occurs when 1 type of fish is represented as another species, usually of higher value, for financial gain. In honey, adulteration occurs when other ingredients are mixed into it and yet it is represented as being genuine honey. When done deliberately, this deceives consumers about what they are buying and creates an unfair market for those selling authentic honey.

For the fish species substitution project, gender-based analyses found that groups that tend to consume larger quantities of fish, such as Indigenous and other communities that live in coastal areas, were the primary beneficiaries, alongside groups with specific dietary habits or who make purchasing decisions based on social or ethical values, such as supporting locally-supplied foods for environmental or economic reasons.

The honey project was found to benefit consumers who make food choices based on their dietary values or needs, such as consuming less refined sugars. It is also supportive of groups that make a conscientious decision to purchase honey because they view it as a healthier or more natural food choice. These include women under 45 years of age and mothers of children under 18, who consume greater amounts compared to the general population.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

GBA Plus Data is expected to be collected as appropriate and/or required through public opinion research in 2021 to 2022 that will aim to understand public perception of food fraud.

Section 3: Program links to gender results framework

Section 4: Program Links to Quality of Life Framework

Horizontal initiatives

CFIA had no horizontal initiatives in 2020 to 2021.

Response to Parliamentary committees and external audits

CFIA had no Parliamentary committee reports requiring a response in 2020 to 2021.

Up-front multi-year funding

CFIA has no up-front multi-year funding.

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs. The tax measures presented in this report are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.

Organizational contact information

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
1400 Merivale Road
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0Y9
Canada
Telephone: 1-800-442-2342 / 1-613-773-2342
Teletypewriter: 1-800-465-7735
Internet: Contact CFIA online

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in 1 or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a three‑year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments' immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department's core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department's actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances. Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.

full‑time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person‑year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full‑time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person's collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])

An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2019 to 2020 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government's agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely Fighting climate change, Strengthening the Middle Class, Walking the road of reconciliation, Keeping Canadians safe and healthy, and Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where 2 or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence‑based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department's programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department's core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead, they are within the area of the organization's influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.