By Bruce Cochrane.
The Manager of PigTrace Canada expects recently introduced fines for non-compliance of swine movement reporting requirements to only be levied in extreme cases following repeated warnings.
Since July, 2014 shippers and receivers of swine within Canada have been required to report movements of those animals to the PigTrace Canada database within 7 days.
The Canadian Food inspection Agency has now introduced a fine structure for non-compliance.
Jeff Clark, the Manager of PigTrace Canada, an initiative of the Canadian Pork Council, says enforcement has been ongoing and is not expected to become any more strict.
Jeff Clark-Canadian Pork Council:
Mostly it's taken an educational approach.
If there's repeat offences and people are just being stubborn CFIA has issued letters of non-compliance to have a written record of it.
Yes, now there is a fine structure and we do want to understand that it shouldn't be used liberally.
It will be used as a last resort if people are being stubborn and there's repeat non-compliance and there's a history of written notices and so on then a fine could be issued.
I know there's quite a bit of anxiety and concern over it and there's some splashy media reports that really try to get people up in arms.
Really this is an important step to give some credibility to our system.
We've talked to producers who are saying "I'm doing this, my neighbor's not, why should I do it if there's no penalty for my neighbor?"
So now there is a potential penalty.
Pretty well all of the infractions are minor offenses, so if you don't identify a pig properly, if you don't report the movement within seven days, things like that then that dollar amount is 13 hundred dollars.
That's pretty much what all of the fines are PigTrace is a 13 hundred dollar fine and again that would be quite extreme to be fined.
Clark says an individual would have to pretty stubborn and have a number of repeat offences before actually being fined.
Source: Farmscape