Archived - 2019 to 2020 CFIA full-time equivalents

In fiscal year^Footnote 1  2019 to 2020, the CFIA had 6056 full-time equivalents (FTE) dedicated to safeguarding food, animals and plants, which enhances the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy.

• 3375 FTEs were used for the Agency's field inspection (2788 FTE) and laboratory professional capacity (587 FTE)
  • This includes work done by front-line inspectors, veterinarians and scientists in federally registered establishments, import service centers, field offices or laboratories
    • For example, the FTE were dedicated to inspecting slaughterhouses, analyzing samples in laboratories, providing virology and toxicology expertise, inspecting ship holds for insects, testing animals in the field for diseases, leading investigations, examining farm crops, authorizing nurseries and greenhouses for export and assessing quality assurance and quality management
• 532 FTE were used for the Agency's inspection and scientific specialist capacity
  • This includes work done by chemists, biologists, scientific researchers, risk assessors and operational specialists
• 2149 FTE represented management and support capacity
  • This includes work done by policy advisors, program managers, executives, statisticians, legal counselors, human resources advisors, financial management professionals, communications specialists, real property, material and acquisition services, information technology and information management specialists as well as students who collectively support safety outcomes

Full-time equivalents (FTE)

FTE is a standard financial measure used to capture the total paid hours of an organization's workforce over the course of a fiscal year.

One full FTE is equal to 37.5 hours of work per week over 12 months (for example, the total work of one full-time employee, or the combined work of two half-time employees).

Using FTEs on an annual basis, rather than the fluctuating number of employees at a given period in time, more accurately depicts the CFIA's investment in inspection activities across the agency and throughout the year.

Slight variations in the number of FTEs from year to year are normal due to workforce attrition.