Liberals want agriculture minister to resign over listeriosis outbreak

With an election call expected Sunday, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion launched a pre-emptive salvo on Thursday, demanding that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz be fired for misleading Canadians about cuts in government inspections at food processing plants.

"Under the circumstances, because this change (to the food inspection regime) has been covered up, the minister can not stay the minister," Dion told a news conference wrapping up a two-day Liberal caucus retreat.

Ritz told a Thursday news conference said there have been no cuts to food inspections.

"In fact, we added resources, both in manpower and money," he said.

The New Democrats went after both the government and the Liberals, arguing that deregulation of food safety started with previous Liberal governments, which ignored repeated warnings from the auditor general about the lack of protocols and procedures to handles outbreaks of food-borne diseases.

"By this standard, Mr. Dion might as well fire former Liberal agriculture minister Wayne Easter," said NDP campaign spokesman Brad Lavigne.

"The seeds to this deadly crisis were sown by the Liberals."

The listeriosis outbreak, traced to a Maple Leaf Foods packing plant in Toronto, has killed at least 13 people. To date, there have been 38 confirmed cases of listeriosis.

As he adjourned the caucus gathering early and sent his MPs scampering back to their ridings, Dion chose to focus almost exclusively on listeriosis. His choice signalled that he intends to use the government's handling of the issue to illustrate one of his main campaign themes: that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is secretive, manipulative, unaccountable and untrustworthy.

"We are angry when we see this kind of government, this culture of secrecy everywhere, even about the safety of Canadians on their food," Dion said.

The issue also dovetails with another Liberal theme: that Harper is an extreme right-wing ideologue who secretly wants to emulate former Ontario premier Mike Harris or U.S. President George W. Bush. Among other things, Liberals allege that agenda includes eviscerating the role of government.

"I'm convinced that Stephen Harper wants Canada to be much more right-wing than what we are," Dion said.

"He's unable to be sincere about that because he can not be elected on that."

Carolyn Bennett, the Liberal public health critic, drew a link between the listeriosis outbreak and the tainted water tragedy in Walkerton, Ont. A judicial inquiry eventually laid some blame for that disaster on cuts and deregulation imposed by the Harris government, in which several of Harper's top ministers served.

"We remember when there was an active decision to reduce inspection and what happened to the health of those people in Walkerton," Bennett said.

Harper promised Wednesday to launch a broad, independent investigation into the listeriosis outbreak that has resulted in the recall of more than 200 products.

Investigations already started by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will continue separately.

Dion accused Harper of timing the investigation to ensure no conclusions can be reached until after a federal election, in hopes that "the details of his government's incompetence don't haunt him on the campaign trail."

Ritz has downplayed a leaked government document which outlined changes to the food-inspection regimen. Among other things, the document suggested that responsibility for safety would shift to industry from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and that food inspectors would spend less time on plant floors doing their own tests.

Ritz initially described the document as a discussion paper and accused opposition MPs of "fear mongering." However, the union representing food inspectors has since said that the changes went into effect March 31.

"Whether (Ritz) was misleading, whether he was unaware, in both cases he should be fired," Dion said, flanked by Easter and Bennett.

Ritz, however, was adamant on the issue on Thursday.

"I don't know where they are coming up with this idea that there were cuts," he said. "There were none."

However, he said some resources were "reallocated," to make the inspection system stronger.

Easter, now the Liberal agriculture critic, baldly accused Ritz of "dishonesty." And he stopped just short of saying the Harper government is responsible for the listeriosis deaths.

"I think we need to be very blunt and forceful about this issue."

Easter said Harper's investigation into the outbreak "is just to provide cover for the government."

"They should be responsible and held accountable for the issues related to food inspections in this country and the problem that is causing deaths of Canadians."