2003/04 -- 2005/06 Service Plan -- Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries

Objectives, Strategies, Performance Measures and Targets — Continued

Core Business Area 3 — Food Safety and Quality

Context: There is an increasing concern, both domestic and international, about the safety and quality of food products. Recent outbreaks of mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease in Britain had devastating effects on their national economies. The ability of the industry and the province to address this issue in British Columbia depends on being able to implement improved systems for food safety and quality and product tracking throughout the food system and being able to maintain systems for the early detection and control of plant and animal diseases and pests.

BC encourages the development and implementation of internationally recognized standards for safety and quality in order to ensure access to both domestic and international markets and to maintain public health standards. To facilitate market access, government’s role is shifting from prescribing regulations to establishing outcome-based regulations with government oversight and improving the consistency between federal and provincial standards.

The ministry works proactively with the agriculture and fish sectors to promote the use of best management practices on farms including disease and pest management, waste management, weed control, and on-farm food safety and quality systems. The ministry operates a plant disease diagnostic laboratory and world-class animal health laboratory to monitor and prevent disease events from getting out of control. It also works with other ministries and the federal government in operating food inspection programs.

Goal: A food system that provides consumers and customers with confidence in the safety and quality of BC food, agriculture and seafood products while protecting the provincial agri-food industry, consumers and markets from food safety risks.

Outcome: High domestic and international confidence in BC foods.

Measure	2002/03 Base	2003/04 Target	2004/05 Target	2005/06 Target
Annual external evaluation of the food system and products by a panel of experts as a proxy for public confidence (e.g.: reps from Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Center for Disease Control, health sector, retail sector, and others.)	Baseline in development	Evaluation report on food system as a proxy indicator of public confidence; report shows positive consumer confidence	Evaluation report shows positive consumer confidence	Evaluation report shows positive consumer confidence

Objective 1: Maintain public health standards as a result of the agriculture and seafood industries implementing food safety and quality systems for the prevention, early detection and control of plant and animal pests and diseases, and food-borne health risks.

Measure	2002/03 Base	2003/04 Target	2004/05 Target	2005/06 Target
# of gastro-intestinal illnesses	132 gastro-intestinal illnesses per hundred thousand population¹	Maintain or reduce # gastro-intestinal illnesses per hundred thousand population	Maintain or reduce # gastro-intestinal illnesses per hundred thousand population	Maintain or reduce # gastro-intestinal illnesses per hundred thousand population


1	Calculated from BC Center of Disease Control 2001 data — Enteric, Food and Waterborne diseases

Strategies

Strengthen prevention programs for diseases and pests of animals and plants, and food-borne health risks.
Early identification of major animal, plant and seafood diseases and pests, and development of intervention plans to manage these risks to the public without industry incurring major economic losses.
Change existing regulations to define standards expected for the safety of the products, rather than on how to produce them.

Objective 2: Maintain access to domestic and international markets and protect the provincial economy through pest and disease management, and through on-farm adoption of recognized food safety and quality systems.

Measure	2002/03 Base	2003/04 Target	2004/05 Target	2005/06 Target
Per cent of BC’s agriculture and seafood industry organizations developing or implementing an on-farm food safety and quality program	To be developed and confirmed	Program under development	Measurable increase to 3-year target	15% of farm organizations

Strategies

Promote adoption within the agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries industries of quality programs directly on their farms or processing plants and in their operations; shift government’s role to oversight, audit and risk assessment.
Promote adoption of traceability systems to allow for BC products to be traced from production to retail.
Influence federal policies and programs through the federal/provincial Agriculture Policy Framework (APF) for food safety programs and reorientation of federal resources to meet BC’s objectives.

Core Business Area 2002/03 Restated
Estimates 2003/04
Estimates 2004/05 Plan 2005/06 Plan

Operating Expenses ($000)

Operating Expenses
6,642 6,189 6,189 6,189

Full-time Equivalents (FTE)

FTEs 54.0 51.0 51.0 51.0

Ministry Capital Expenditures (Consolidated Revenue Fund) $000

Capital Expenditures 386 300 251 301

Core Business Area 1 — Industry Competitiveness
Core Business Area 2 — Fisheries and Aquaculture Management
Core Business Area 3 — Food Safety and Quality
Core Business Area 4 — Environmental Sustainability and Resource Development
Core Business Area 5 — Risk Management
Core Business Area 6 — Executive and Support Services