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A departmental plan describes a department's priorities, plans and associated costs for the upcoming 3 fiscal years.
Key priorities
Modernizing regulation and empowering stakeholders
- Supporting the Government of Canada's efforts to make Canada's regulatory framework more flexible, transparent, and responsive to the needs of business, including supporting industry transition to the new front-of-package labelling requirements
- Supporting the Government of Canada's Digital Ambition to provide Canadians with reliable, accessible, and secure digital services
- Supporting the Government of Canada's commitment to grow a more resilient economy and its goal of increasing overseas exports by 50% by 2025
Preventing and preparing for emergencies
- Supporting the Government of Canada's preparedness to proactively plan for, mitigate, and respond to emerging incidents and hazards, including preventing the introduction of African swine fever (ASF) within Canadian borders
- Continuing to work with partners on prevention and preparedness measures for potato wart, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), and foot-and-mouth disease
Strengthening scientific collaboration and international cooperation
- Through collaboration with partners, supporting the Government of Canada's commitment to building a healthier today and tomorrow by combatting antimicrobial resistance to preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobial treatments
- In consultation and cooperation with Indigenous partners, implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which builds upon the obligations arising from the Constitution Act (Duty to Consult) and the Cabinet Directive on the Federal Approach to Modern Treaty Implementation, and seeks to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples living in Canada
Supporting an enabled workforce and managing services and assets
- Implementing the Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service
- Supporting the Government of Canada's efforts under the Federal Greening Government Strategy
Refocusing government spending
In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1 billion over the next 5 years, starting in 2023 to 2024, and by $4.1 billion annually after that.
As part of meeting this commitment, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is planning the following spending reductions:
- 2024 to 2025: $12,370,000
- 2025 to 2026: $18,337,000
- 2026 to 2027 and after: $26,506,000
The CFIA will achieve these reductions by doing the following:
- implementing a modern inspection approach and supporting technologies to create greater consistency, efficiency, and process improvements in inspection activities
- adjusting resources and capacity in response to industry's changing business models
- bringing increased focus and balance to research efforts with a greater emphasis on collaboration with partners and responding to increasing demands on laboratory services through harmonization and expansion of a well-established program
- operating, administrative, and internal services efficiencies
These reductions will have no impact on food safety, plant, or animal health.
The figures in this departmental plan reflect these reductions.
Highlights
A Departmental Results Framework consists of an organization's core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.
Safe food and healthy plants and animals
Departmental results:
- Food sold in Canada is safe and accurately represented to Canadians
- Plant and animal resources are protected from diseases and pests and are safe for Canadians and the environment
- Canadian food, plants and animals and their associated products can be traded internationally
Snapshot of planned resources in 2024 to 2025
- Planned spending: $684,325,474
- Planned human resources: 5,112
The CFIA will focus on 3 strategic themes to achieve the results for its core responsibility of safe food and healthy plants and animals.
1. Modernizing regulation and empowering stakeholders
The CFIA will continue to modernize its regulatory framework for food safety, plant health, and animal health and take meaningful steps to empower its stakeholders through compliance promotion, modernized service delivery, and support for new business opportunities for Canadian goods. Highlights for 2024 to 2025 include:
- advancing regulatory modernization initiatives in the CFIA's forward regulatory plan, such as:
- amendments to the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations to address the inter-provincial trade barrier within Lloydminster, a city that straddles the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan, by enabling the movement of safe food in the same way as in cities that are not split by provincial boundaries
- amendments to the Plant Protection Regulations to enhance agility and support the CFIA's efforts to quickly respond to new or existing threats to the health of plants in Canada
- preparing for implementation and supporting businesses' transition to the new requirements under the Food and Drug Regulations for front-of-package labelling and labelling of supplemented foods, and new requirements under the modernized Feeds Regulations
- continuing the review of the Safe Food for Canadians Act to identify gaps and inconsistencies, opportunities to enhance clarity of certain provisions, and possible future amendments
- modernizing oversight activities, including:
- virtual delivery of certain inspection and food control system audit activities
- evaluating alternative approaches to delivering the Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program for Indigenous food, social, and ceremonial harvest access purposes
- expanding the CFIA's modernized slaughter inspection program to the beef sector
- increasing access to online services by continuing to digitalize CFIA permissions and certifications, including movement certificates for plant products and export certificates, to better align with industry needs, improve internal processes, and support the Government of Canada's Digital Ambition
- advancing Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy by working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to establish Canada's first Agriculture and Agri-Food Office in the Indo-Pacific region
- supporting implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, including initiating work on the multi-year commitment to co-develop options for a framework to support the processing, sale, and internal trade of Inuit traditional and country foods
- continuing to work with federal, provincial, and territorial partners to address barriers, enhance internal trade in Canada, and support the Government of Canada's commitments under the Federal Action Plan to Strengthen Internal Trade
2. Preventing and preparing for emergencies
The CFIA will work to strengthen emergency prevention plans and establish resilient emergency preparedness plans for threats to food safety and plant and animal health. This will be accomplished through integrated and enhanced risk intelligence and information sharing; identifying opportunities to further align resources based on risk; making targeted investments in new tools to help prevent and control the spread of diseases and pests; and measures to support global supply chains and safeguard market access for Canadian exports in the event of an emergency situation. Highlights for 2024 to 2025 include:
- implementing the Canadian Animal Disease Integrated Application, a new tool that will help the CFIA investigate and respond to animal disease emergencies
- continuing to strengthen prevention and proactive response plans for animal diseases such as ASF and foot-and-mouth disease, including:
- working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to deliver the Pan-Canadian ASF Action Plan
- establishing a Canadian foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank to help producers and farmers protect their herds while mitigating prolonged market disruptions to trade, should the disease enter Canada
- continuing to support response efforts to the ongoing outbreaks of HPAI in Canada, including:
- collaborating with partners to explore the potential use of vaccinations to help Canadian poultry producers protect their flocks
- providing HPAI testing, confirmation capabilities, and using the data generated to help inform response plans
- amending the Compensation for Destroyed Animals Regulations to make updates in response to recent outbreaks to improve consistency, and support disease control and eradication efforts
- expanding the use of risk assessment models, such as the Importer Risk Assessment, Food Import Risk Explorer, and Establishment-based Risk Assessment models, which help prioritize inspection efforts based on areas of highest risk
- continuing to manage potato wart response efforts on Prince Edward Island, including engaging with potato growers and trading partners to renew the Potato Wart Domestic Long Term Management Plan, working towards implementation by summer 2024
- completing renewal of the Sidney Centre for Plant Health, an updated facility that will provide the CFIA and partners with state-of-the-art amenities to advance plant science, including modernized diagnostic testing to detect plant diseases and support response efforts
- implementing updates to Canada's bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) surveillance program which will support Canada's World Organisation for Animal Health-designated negligible-risk status for the trade of beef products
- exploring opportunities to establish new zoning arrangements with international trading partners to limit trade disruptions between Canada and export markets in the event of a disease outbreak in Canada, such as ASF or HPAI
3. Strengthening scientific collaboration and international cooperation
The CFIA will continue to collaborate domestically and internationally to help address existing and emerging issues and effectively deliver on its mandate. This includes working with key partners to foster a One Health approach to address increasingly complex issues related to global health; advancing scientific cooperation and research in critical areas, such as diagnostics, surveillance, and risk assessment; and strengthening international relationships in support of common, science-based approaches and standards. Highlights for 2024 to 2025 include:
- working with partners to develop a long-term strategy for dog imports to protect against harmful diseases, such as dog rabies, which can affect human and animal health
- launching the Canadian Plant Health Information System, a cloud-based platform that will provide the CFIA and partners with a central space for sharing information, integrating datasets, and performing data analytics to collectively strengthen pest prevention efforts
- partnering with Health Canada to advance new scientific methods to identify misrepresentation in food, such as adulteration and substitution
- representing Canada's trade policy interests at the World Trade Organization Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures to enhance collaboration with likeminded countries, steer progress on key trade policy topics, and promote Canada's interests
- working collaboratively with internal and external partners to strengthen and increase the inclusion and recognition of Indigenous science perspectives, values, and practices
- working with Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to support implementation of the Pan-Canadian Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, and facilitating access to alternatives to using antimicrobials
More information about safe food and healthy plants and animals can be found in the full departmental plan.