Registration

SOR/2008-183 May 30, 2008

AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD ADMINISTRATIVE MONETARY
PENALTIES ACT

Regulations Amending the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations

The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, pursuant to subsection 4(1) of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act (see footnote a), hereby makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations.

Ottawa, May 28, 2008

GERRY RITZ
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

REGULATIONS AMENDING THE AGRICULTURE
AND AGRI-FOOD ADMINISTRATIVE MONETARY
PENALTIES REGULATIONS

AMENDMENTS

1. Item 145.2 of Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the French version of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations (see footnote 1) that sets out a reference to subsection 91.2(3) of the Health of Animals Regulations is renumbered as item 145.3.

2. Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after item 303.015:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
303.016	174.1	Sell or distribute approved tags without reporting the required information to the administrator within the prescribed time	Serious

3. Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by adding the following after item 303.1:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
303.11	175(1.2)	Fail to ensure that the application of an approved tag is in the prescribed manner	Minor

4. Items 304 to 307 of Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations are replaced by the following:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
304.	176	Move or cause the movement of an animal or the carcass of an animal not bearing an approved tag from its farm of origin or from a farm or ranch other than its farm of origin	Minor
305.	177(1)	Transport or cause the transportation of an animal or the carcass of an animal not bearing an approved tag	Minor
306.	177(2)	Receive or cause the reception of an animal or the carcass of an animal not bearing an approved tag	Minor

5. Item 311 of Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
311.	181	Alter an approved tag or make its identification number unreadable	Serious

6. Items 313 and 314 of Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations are replaced by the following:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
312.1	183(2)	Failure of a person who manages a tagging site to tag all bisons and bovines brought to the site that do not already bear an approved tag	Minor
313.	184(1)	Fail to apply a new approved tag to an animal that has lost its approved tag or that does not bear an approved tag	Minor
313.1	184(4)	Fail to report the prescribed information to the administrator in the prescribed time	Minor
314.	185(1)	Fail to keep a record for an animal or animal’s carcass with a new approved tag	Minor
314.1	185(3)	Fail to report the number of the new approved tag and the previously applied approved tag to the administrator in the prescribed time	Minor
314.2	185(4)	Fail to report the prescribed information to the administrator in the prescribed time	Minor

7. Item 318 of Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
317.1	186(4)	Fail to report the prescribed information to the administrator in the prescribed time	Minor
318.	187(1)(b)	Failure by the person disposing of an animal’s carcass bearing an approved tag to report to the administrator within the prescribed time the number of the approved tag	Minor

8. Item 320 of Division 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Item	Column 1 Provision of Health of Animals Regulations	Column 2 Short-form Description	Column 3 Classification
319.1	187(3)	Fail to report the prescribed information to the administrator in the prescribed time	Minor
320.	188	Fail to report the number of an exported animal’s approved tag to the administrator in the prescribed time	Minor

COMING INTO FORCE

9. These Regulations come into force 30 days after the day on which they are registered.

REGULATORY IMPACT
ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Description

The purposes of the Health of Animals Act and Regulations are: to prevent the introduction of animal diseases into Canada; to control and eliminate diseases in animals that either affect human health or could significantly affect the Canadian economy; and to provide for the humane treatment of animals during transport.

The purpose of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act (AMPs Act) is to enhance the enforcement options currently available in respect of seven statutes administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The AMPs Act establishes an alternative to the existing penal system and supplements current enforcement measures such as prosecution.

Pursuant to the AMPs Act, the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations (AMPs Regulations) have been implemented to respond to violations of the Health of Animals Act and its regulations, and the Plant Protection Act and its regulations. The AMPs Regulations currently set out provisions of these acts and regulations, the contravention of which may result in the issuance of monetary penalties ranging from fifty dollars to six thousand dollars. In addition, the AMPs Regulations authorize compliance agreements whereby administrative monetary penalties can be reduced or cancelled if persons who commit violations agree to take appropriate steps to ensure future compliance with the law and if these steps include monetary expenditures.

The Canadian Cattle Identification Program is a relatively new program. It was introduced in 2001 through an amendment to the Health of Animals Regulations and is applicable to cattle and bison. The program is administered by the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) and involves the individual identification of all animals that move beyond their herds of origin with approved ear tags. In the event of an animal health or food safety problem, the national database provides the CFIA with valuable information so that the traceback investigation can begin in order to rapidly contain and eliminate the problem. The CFIA is also responsible for enforcing the program. More recently, the Canadian Sheep Identification Program was introduced on January 1, 2004.

An initial amendment to the AMPs Regulations provided the authority to CFIA enforcement officials to issue administrative monetary penalties for violations to the cattle and bison identification provisions, effective July 1, 2002. Compliance levels immediately increased significantly and are estimated to exceed 95% at auction barns and abattoirs today. A further minor amendment to the AMPs Regulations occurred in 2004 in response to the introduction of sheep identification requirements.

In response to the incidents of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the cattle herd, the Health of Animals Regulations were amended in mid 2005 to provide a number of enhancements to the Canadian Cattle Identification Program. It is no longer permitted to move unidentified animals to community pastures, fairs or vet clinics. As well, auction barns are no longer exempt from the requirement to replace lost tags. The requirement to identify is extended to include deadstock. Approved tagging sites are required to ensure that all unidentified animals are tagged upon reception, and producers are required to have made prior arrangements with the tagging site for the identification of their animals if the tags do not accompany the animals.

These changes are aimed at improving the information in the database available to CFIA personnel to ensure that traceback activities can be carried out in a timely and efficient manner. The amendment requires tag distributors to report information on producer tag sales to the database within 24 hours. Where a person wishes to apply a new approved tag to an animal that is already identified, it is required to report the correlated numbers to the database. As well, it is no longer permitted to replace an approved tag with another tag for animals destined for the export market.

This amendment incorporates violations for the new provisions into the AMPs Regulations so that the authority exists for CFIA regional directors to issue monetary penalties in the event of non-compliance with the new and modified requirements of the identification program.

Alternatives

1. Status Quo — Do not amend the current AMPs Regulations

The status quo does not provide the CFIA with AMPs as an enforcement option in the case of a violation of new requirements of the cattle ID program, and would result in AMPs no longer being available for certain of the older requirements which have been renumbered.

2. Amend the AMPs Regulations.

The benefits of AMPs as an enforcement tool are numerous: AMPs is efficient and cost effective; it decriminalizes regulatory offences by emphasizing compliance rather than punitive action; it is an appropriate treatment of violations for which prosecution may be time consuming and costly; it provides for immediate enforcement and immediate corrective action; and it provides for the use of negotiated solutions to non-compliance for commercial violations. In the absence of AMPs, these benefits would not be available for the animal identification program. The introduction of AMPs in 2002 had an immediate positive effect on compliance levels.

Benefits and costs

Updating the violations to reflect the current Health of Animals Regulations requirements allows regional directors to continue to make use of AMPs as an enforcement tool. There are savings to be realized by proceeding with administrative monetary penalties rather than through prosecution of offences.

Consultation

The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) was established in 1998 at the direction of elected cattle industry representatives and given the mandate to develop an individual animal traceback system for animal health and product safety purposes. The CCIA is led by a Board of Directors made up of representatives from all sectors of the industry — cow/calf, feedlot, auction market, packing plant, veterinary, dairy, bison, etc. The CCIA and the CFIA have worked jointly to develop and implement the Canadian Cattle Identification Program to provide industry and Government with traceback capabilities in the event of an animal disease or food safety problem.

The CCIA has demonstrated its strong support for the AMPs program through the adoption of resolutions. Indeed, the major concern of the CCIA is that the time period between the alleged violation and the issuance of the notice for the administrative monetary penalty is excessive in certain cases. Prior to issuing a notice of violation, the CFIA reviews the facts associated with each case.

Compliance and enforcement

AMPs provides the CFIA operations staff with an additional option to respond to non-compliance. The CFIA enforcement and compliance policy was developed in 1999 and outlines various enforcement options available under the legislation administered and enforced by the CFIA.

The Regulations provide a 30 day coming into force provision.

Contact

Richard Robinson
Manager, Identification and Traceability Programs
Food of Animal Origin Division
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
59 Camelot Drive
Nepean, Ontario
K1A 0Y9
Telephone: 613-954-9408
Fax: 613-952-0374

Footnote a
S.C. 1995, c. 40

Footnote 1
SOR/2000-187; SOR/2003–257

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