TORONTO — An observed lack of communication between Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF) inspectors and Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) investigators is a direct result of a staff transfer ordered by the Ontario Tory government, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union says.
Ontario Premier Ernie Eves observed yesterday that “there doesn’t seem to be any connection” between OMAF and MNR staff involved in the investigation of food safety problems at Aylmer Meat Packers, Inc. in Aylmer. He seemed unaware that his government had moved meat safety investigators out of OMAF and into MNR in April 2000.
“The first casualty of cuts, privatization, and Tory restructuring is always communication,” said Doug Peebles, union chair of the Employer/Employee Relations Committee at OMAF. “With Walkerton, we saw how the privatization of Ministry of Environment labs severed the vital link between the labs and the municipalities. With Aylmer, we’re seeing how
ill-conceived cost-cutting severed the link between the meat safety inspectorate and meat safety investigators.
“We have Ministries for a reason,” said Peebles. “Ministries are supposed to be made up of people working on related issues. Unfortunately, the Tories don’t seem to get that.
“Ernie Eves has nobody to blame for this communication breakdown but his own government and its slash-and-burn ideology.”
Both MNR and OMAF were hit hard by Tory cutbacks, particularly but not only, in 1996 and 1997. The report of the Walkerton Inquiry (Part 1) observed that the Agriculture Ministry had 2,400 full-time-equivalent staff in 1990, but just 613 in 2000.
- 30 -
For more information: Doug Peebles (416) 443-8888 ext. 210; (519) 240-1070 (cell)
