Section IV: Other Items of Interest

  • Performance Indicators by Operational Priority
  • Further Information on the Assessment of Compliance
  • Organizational Contact Information

4.1 Performance Indicators by Operational Priority

Associated SO(s) Operational Priorities Performance Indicators
All Strategic Outcomes
  1. Design and deliver risk-based inspection and surveillance services
  2. Improve compliance through compliance management activities
  3. Modernize the Agency's regulatory components and tools
  4. Increase transparency and strengthen strategic partnerships and communications with key partners, and stakeholders
  5. Develop a workforce and workplace such that the Agency is innovative, more effective and well-managed
 Program Activity: Food Safety and Nutrition Risks
  • Extent to which inspected federally registered establishments comply with federal food safety requirements (5 Sub Indicators)
  • Extent to which domestic and imported food products comply with federal chemical residue requirements (7 Sub Indicators)
  • Time taken to issue public warnings for Class I recalls
  • Extent to which nutrition information on non-registered food products inspected is accurate.

Program Activity: Zoonotics Risk

  • Number of incidents of avian influenza that expand beyond the initial control zone

Program Activity: Animal Health Risk and Production System

  • Extent to which the CFIA's data indicates that foreign regulated animal diseases have entered Canada via specified regulated pathways
  • Extent to which the CFIA's data indicates the spread of foreign regulated animal diseases that entered into Canada this fiscal year.
  • Extent to which renderers and feed mills inspected are without any major deviations with respect to the Feeds Regulations and the Health of Animals Regulations (enhanced feed ban) (2 Sub Indicators)

Program Activity: Plant Health Risk and Production System

  • Extent to which CFIA data indicates the entry and establishment of new and foreign regulated plant diseases and pests into Canada (listed diseases/pests in the Regulated Pest List for Canada)
  • Extent of change in the presence of regulated plant diseases or pests beyond the regulated areas
  • Extent to which Plant Health risks identified by the CFIA (within and outside Canada) are communicated to the affected stakeholders

Program Activity: Biodiversity Protection

  • Percentage of inspections of novel products that demonstrate compliance with the requirements and standards outlined in the respective authorizations for experimental purposes (4 Sub Indicators)

Program Activity: Integrated Regulatory Frame work

  • Percentage of regulatory initiatives that meet publication requirements for either the Canada Gazette, Part I or Part II

Program Activity: Domestic and International Market Access

  • Extent to which the net quantity, composition, labelling and advertising of non-registered food products inspected is accurate.
  • Extent to which certified food, animal and plant shipments meet the receiving country's import requirements (5 Sub Indicators)

4.2 Further Information on the Assessment of Compliance

As a regulatory agency, the principal means by which the CFIA carries out its mandate is by measuring rates of compliance with Canadian food, animal, and plant legislative requirements. The CFIA promotes compliance by conducting inspections, audits, product sampling and verifications. The CFIA also carries out education and awareness activities to increase regulated parties' understanding of statutory requirements and standards. Compliance rates are an indicator of the extent to which regulated parties have adhered to federal acts and regulations. The CFIA takes the following approaches to assessing compliance:

  • Monitoring: Establishments or products are inspected, sampled and tested in such a way that the resulting compliance rates are representative of the CFIA-regulated population. Monitoring programs provide an accurate overview of compliance in the marketplace in general.
  • Targeting: In cases where monitoring has identified significant compliance problems, the CFIA takes a targeted approach to inspections, sampling and testing by focusing on the problem area and areas of highest risk. Non-compliant establishments or products are often sought out for targeting to better define problem areas and reasons for non-compliance. For this reason, compliance rates of targeted programs are typically lower. Improved compliance is promoted through enforcement actions.
  • Investigating: Investigations are undertaken for the purposes of prosecution for non-compliance, which includes gathering evidence and information from a variety of sources considered relevant to a suspected violation or offence.

The methods for determining compliance reflect the level and type of risks associated with the food or agricultural products being assessed. The specific methods the CFIA uses to determine compliance are outlined below:

  • Compliance results are determined during the initial inspection;
  • Compliance results are determined during the CFIA follow up visit conducted after the initial inspection;
  • Compliance results are determined during the initial testing of food and product samples; and
  • Compliance results are determined on an annual basis, following a correction period after the end of the fiscal year.

Varying by program, non-compliance can be determined if:

  • There is a violation that poses a significant health and safety concern; and
  • There is any violation even if it is not health and safety related.

Where compliance rates appear in this report, the relevant method used to assess compliance has been noted.

When CFIA inspectors determine that a regulated party is non-compliant, that party is required to take corrective action. If non-compliance persists, Agency inspectors have a variety of tools at their disposal. In a graduated approach, these tools range from procedural actions including letters of non-compliance, seizure and detention, suspension/cancellation of licences/registrations/permits and recommending prosecution.

The complexity of the agri-food sector and the inherent variability of the biological and production systems underpinning it are such that some degree of non-compliance is inevitable. A compliance rate of less than one hundred per cent means that some proportion of the facilities or products inspected by the CFIA has failed to meet certain requirements or standards as defined by the legislation. Major variances have the potential to pose a significant risk to human, animal or plant health and/or other program objectives. These are always met with vigorous enforcement actions to assure protection of Canadians and the plant and animal resource base. Some deficiencies represent minor variances and do not pose a significant risk to human, animal or plant health.

It is critical to note that the nature of the CFIA's mandated responsibilities is dynamic, given their basis in biological and production systems that are ever-changing. The inherent variability of these systems makes them difficult to predict and it is reasonable to expect some shift in compliance from year to year. The specificity of targets and reported results must be considered in this context.

4.3 Organizational Contact Information

Contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency via:

Telephone from Monday to Friday 08:00 to 20:00 Eastern time:
Toll Free: 1-800-442-2342
NCR: 1-613-225-2342
TTY: 1-800-465-7735
Internet: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/util/contact/commene.shtml