September 22, 2005
NEWS RELEASE

ANDERSON ANXIOUSLY AWAITS AUDIT

OTTAWA - David Anderson, Member of Parliament for Cypress Hills-Grasslands, was excited to learn that the Auditor General has taken up his request for an audit of Canadian farm programs. In a letter to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, dated September 15, 2005, the Auditor General confirmed her intentions to conduct a performance audit of all Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada programs. The audit will include farm income support programs, including disaster assistance.

The audit was prompted by a May 17th motion that Anderson tabled at a meeting of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee. He requested that the Office of the Auditor General conduct, in particular, an audit of the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program.

“I was pleased to learn that the Auditor General has not only agreed to conduct the CAIS audit, but has also expanded the scope of the audit to include all farm income programs,” said Anderson. “The audit of CAIS was something that all opposition members of the Agriculture Committee supported. This program has been causing headaches for producers for too long, and many of them haven’t even been able to trigger any kind of payout, while others have had their payments clawed back. Canadian producers will be very pleased with this announcement and we will all look forward to the final report.

“In addition, we needed someone to study the government’s inability to properly provide for producers hit by the BSE crisis, and the Auditor General has made that a part of this audit as well. I trust that this audit’s findings will shed some much needed light on this issue.”

The Auditor General’s letter to the Agriculture Committee also states that an audit of emergency preparedness at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will be undertaken.

“The audit of emergency preparedness is another very welcome surprise,” continued Anderson. “As we recently learned through the CFIA’s bungling of the avian flu crisis, the emergency preparedness of the CFIA is critical in responding to emerging threats affecting the agricultural community. The Auditor General’s findings will be invaluable in ensuring that the Minister and the CFIA are better prepared for potential future agricultural crises.”

The Auditor General has stated that the results of her audit on farm income programs will be reported in April, 2007 and the audit of emergency preparedness at the CFIA can be expected one year after that.

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