The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, recently announced a contribution of $1 million to support international bodies that develop standards for food safety and plant and animal health.
The contribution of $1 million is allocated to eight (8) initiatives and projects as follows:
- CAN$325,000 to support accelerated delivery of scientific advice by the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) by increasing meeting frequency and by providing a higher level of scientific support to the work of JMPR experts;
- CAN$80,000 to convene the Standards Committee (SC-25) meeting in May 2017, where the International Movement of Grains standard will be discussed;
- CAN$90,000 to organize one Expert Working Group (EWG) to advance work on an International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures on the authorization of entities to perform phytosanitary actions;
- CAN$180,000 to hire an OIE Technical Coordinator and Training Facilitator to develop and implement three regional seminars in 2017 (Asia, Americas and Middle East) on OIE standards relevant to the import and export of animals and animal products, the practice of import risk analysis, and the use of the standards in the process of status recognition;
- CAN$115,000 to organize one joint expert meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) to enhance the availability of scientific advice on Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC);
- CAN$100,000 to develop an IPPC-manual on pest free areas (PFAs) and areas of low pest prevalence (ALPPs);
- CAN$50,000 to support delivery of scientific advice by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Nutrition (JEMNU); and
- CAN$60,000 funding envelope be directed to the Codex Trust Fund Initiative to support the full and effective engagement of all countries in the Codex Alimentarius Commission.